Pure Trouble
by WingsOfMorphius
Summary: No Phantom Planet Danny has three goals in the 10th grade; Fight ghosts, pass his classes and don't let anyone find out he's Phantom. However, now he has to deal with the new Supernatural Studies class Casper High is starting, which might conflict with Goal Three. But hey, how much could his teacher really know about supernatural stuff, anyways?
1. Summer Daze

**WoM****-** _No, people, you aren't imagining things. WingsofMorphius has, in fact, risen back from the dead to begin writing again. Danny Phantom fanfics, at that. _

_For those of you who don't follow me on DeviantArt, let me just say that, after a long, hard soul searching, I finally came to terms with some stuff that was bothering me and now feel good about returning to that which I love. You can check out my profile for the whole story there, but to make it brief, I've decided that I will be revising my old Danny Phantom stories (primarily Gender Confusion at first, then others to follow) and working on new ideas as well. I'm already halfway done with my new Outline for Gender Confusion, so I'll try to send the first revised chapter of that to my betas before the end of the week._

_Also on that note, Please remember to throw some gratitude at _**Obi-Quiet**_ and _**IronBloodAika**_ for putting up with my terrible grammar and spelling, made more terrible by the fact that I did not have a spell check when originally writing this chapter! THANK YOU GUUUUUUYS! 'huggles violently'_

* * *

**Summer Daze**

_The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living from the dead._

_**- **_**Aristotle**

* * *

_I wonder if this is what it feels like when you're run over by a steamroller?_ Wincing slightly as her ribs began to crack under the pressure of the bear hug she was currently trapped in, the dark haired young woman gave her mother a comforting pat on the back as she blinked back tears of pain.

"Promise you'll call every day?" the woman fussed as she finally released her eldest child, much to the younger's relief. "And please don't try and do anything too dangerous. I know you've been in worse before, but you'll be all alone over there, so-!"

"I'll be careful, Mama, I swear," the girl vowed for the umpteenth time, smiling as her mother dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief. "Even if I'm by myself, I'll probably be better protected then all the people who have been living there for years now."

"Of course she will be!" her grandfather interjected loudly, puffing up with pride. "After all, I gave her some of my most powerful charms to protect her! No ghosts will be able to get within a hundred feet of my beloved granddaughter!" Laughing weakly at her grandfather's boast, the girl turned to hug him as well. It surprised her a bit how much she was going to miss the man's odd antics now that she was moving away.

"Just... don't do anything too dangerous dear," her mother begged. "I mean, I heard that one of those ghosts over there almost destroyed the entire city..." The girl opened her mouth to reassure her mother again, but was cut off by a dry snort from the tall, gangly teen beside her.

"Come on, Mama. We all know she's gonna say she'll be careful, then the first time someone's in danger she'll jump right in to help," he said dryly before grinning hopefully at the woman. "But if you let me go with her-!"

"Because having BOTH of my children in a ghost-infested town on the other side of the planet is going to make me feel so much better," the mother said flatly. "The answer's still no, young man. Even if there wasn't the safety issue to worry about, our family still doesn't have the money to send you to school in America. Besides, it's your last year of high school!"

"And once again, I miss out on all the action," the teen grumbled, earning a laugh from his sister.

"Don't worry, I'll tell you anything that happens. I promise," she said, grinning at him before catching her mother's eye. "I mean, um... not that anything's GOING to happen, since I'm going to be careful since I'm all on my own over there..."

"At least until the first ghost attack, when you'll go running off into danger just like your brother said," her mother finished, giving a defeated sort of smile. "Just... promise not to get in over your head?"

"I haven't managed to yet, have I?" The daughter said in lieu of making the vow her mother wanted. Before the older woman could point this out, the Intercom buzzed to life and a woman's voice floated over the crowd.

_"Flight 281 to St. Paul, Minnesota is now boarding. Passengers please make your way to the gate with your ticket."_

"Well, that's me," the young woman said, shouldering a bag before pulling her mother in for one last hug.

"You'll call us as soon as your plane lands. And again once you're all set up in Amity Park?" The older woman asked tearfully.

"Of course, Mama," the woman said with a warm smile. "I'll call every day, I promise," letting her mother go, the woman then turned to her brother, who accepted her hug with a grin.

"Knock 'em dead sis," he said jokingly.

"How can I if they're already dead to begin with?" the girl countered with a teasing smirk. "Don't break too many hearts while I'm gone, okay?"

"No promises." Shaking her head at her brother's cheekiness, the woman at last turned to her grandfather, who was looking quite tearful at this point.

"Remember to put up all the protective charms I gave you! And keep one with you at all times! Ghosts are tricky creatures, especially powerful ones, so you have to be careful who you trust over there! Better not let anyone in your house, especially young men..."

"I'll keep that in mind, grandpa!" the woman chuckled as she hugged him. Releasing the old man, the dark haired woman grinned at her family as a whole for one last time before she started towards her plane. "Well then, wish me luck!"

_I'm gonna need it if this crazy plan of mine has any hope of working..._ She added silently to herself as her family responded enthusiastically. Heart hammering, the young woman stepped on to the plane that would carry her away from her family, her home and everything else she had ever known. As her feet carried her away from the life she had led, the young lady suddenly recalled words from a conversation she held years ago with the being who played a big role in trying to ruin her life.

_Moving forward is the only way back._

Determination swelled up in her as she thought of those words, making her fear and uncertainty ebb as her grip tightened on the weathered yellow backpack she carted with her onto the plane. It was far too late to turn back now, and she had no intention of doing anything of the sort. No matter what, she'd find what she was looking for, and no super-powered Spiritual Entity was going to stand in her way. Forcing a smile for the flight attendant, the woman spared one last look to her family before turning to face her future, whatever it may hold.

"Amity Park, here I come."

* * *

"You suck, Sam."

Samantha Abigail Manson- or Sam to anyone who didn't feel like swallowing their own teeth- rolled her eyes at her friend's accusation before throwing a flat look at the bespectacled boy who made it.

"Whine all you want, Tucker, you can't change the fact that school's starting again in less than a week, and none of us have any new school supplies," Sam shot back as she physically dragged the boy into the mall. She ignored the way that gooseflesh rose up on her arms when she walked under the air conditioning unit, which was doing its best to make the interior of the building a good fifty degrees cooler then what it was outside.

"Speak for yourself," the dark haired boy following them scoffed. "Jazz has enough school supplies to last both of us until college."

"Does that include the summer school that Lancer keeps threatening you with now?" Tucker joked, grinning at his best friend grimace at the reminder of that particularly _unsavory_ conversation just before their freshman year had let out for the last time.

"He didn't threaten me," the blue eyed boy said defensively. "He just warned me that I'd be in trouble if I kept up with the whole 'skipping class and not turning in my homework thing.'"

"Sooo less of a threat and more of a promise," Sam pointed out, somewhere between exasperated and amused. "Any chance the ghosts have learned their lesson about popping up during school hours yet? You'd think after a whole year of having their butts kicked by Danny Phantom, something would start to sink in."

"Not likely," Danny Fenton, better known as Amity Park's infamous ghost boy Danny Phantom, grumbled a bit as he thought about the seemingly never-ending stream of ghosts that he was constantly fighting off in an attempt to keep his city safe. "If anything, there are more and more coming out lately to try and fight me. I'm thinking of putting up a toll booth in front of the Fenton Portal soon. 'Least that way, I can get some cash outta this superhero gig..."

"Do ghosts even carry money?" Tucker wondered, clearly bemused with the idea.

"What, you think Skulker works for Vlad out of the goodness of his heart?" Danny shot back, raising an eyebrow at his friend.

"True. Hey, I wonder what the going rate for a good lackey is nowadays? Has to beat the sidekick gig." Tucker pouted childishly at his nearly empty wallet as he said this, which made both of his companions shake their heads in exasperation.

"If I can talk my parents into going along with my toll booth idea, I'll split my share of the profits with you."

"Are you two done with the get rich quick schemes yet? We still need to buy our school supplies, you know," Sam reminded them tartly, making Danny gape at her.

"Okay seriously, who are you and what have you done with Sam?" the boy asked warily. "I mean, I get Jazz being all geared up to start school, but _you_?" Looking offended, Sam opened her mouth to demand to know what her friend meant by that when Tucker broke in with a comment of his own.

"She just wants to check out that new Supernatural Studies class they're starting this year. It's been pretty much all she talks about for, like, the last three months."

_Thank you, Tucker._ Sam thought sourly, elbowing her friend in the rib as retribution for his big mouth as Danny's face darkened. _Want to remind him of the fact that his older ghost self almost destroyed the world while you're at it? _Sighing, Sam turned back to her other friend with a halfway pleading look on her face.

"Come on, Danny, you have to admit it sounds interesting."

"Oh sure, what's more interesting than having more people around that could threaten my secret?" Danny asked bitterly as the trio entered an electronics store. "Think I'll get extra credit if the teacher turns me into a lab rat?"

"No one's turning you into a lab rat," Sam rolled her eyes at her friend's dramatics. "Danny, you live with two professional ghost hunters and dated Valerie," Sam grimaced as she spat out that particular name. "None of them ever figured out that there's anything different about you, so why should some silly teacher be any more of a threat?" Danny considered his friend's words for a moment before relaxing minutely.

"Yeah," he conceded at last. "I guess you're right."

"Of course I am," Sam shot back with a grin. "So stop worrying about something that's probably not even going to be an issue and start getting excited. I mean, we're getting graded on how well we know _ghosts_. You should be able to pass this class in your sleep!" Danny grinned widely at Sam's point. Now that she mentioned it, there was something kinda awesome about that.

"Oof!" Danny grunted when he accidentally plowed into Tucker while he was considering this.

"Tucker?" Sam inquired with a worried frown before groaning at the all too familiar look that had glazed over her friend's face. "Oh, no..."

As one, Sam and Danny followed the besotted boy's line of sight to see what their friend was currently drooling over, their eyes soon falling on a pretty Asian woman with long black hair, who was pouting in front of the PC displays. Blinking, Danny turned to his female friend with a shrug.

"Well hey, at least it's a girl this time instead of the new MeDock."

"Dude, she's hot!" Tucker said, eyeing the curves that the woman's flowing, baby blue sundress left tastefully displayed.

"She's also a college student," Sam pointed out, a little dismayed that she was the only one who noticed this. "Waaaay out of your league, Romeo."

"Sam has a point," Danny at least had the good grace to sound apologetic about this, though privately he figured that even if the girl had been their age, Tucker probably still wouldn't have had a shot with her.

"Can't you guys at least let me dream?" Tucker whined, earning vicious looking grins from both his friends. "...You know what? You guys both suck."

"Come on, Tucker, we're just looking out for you," Danny reassured the boy with a grin. "I mean, think about it; what are the chances of a hot, older woman showing even a remote interest in guys like us?" Deflating, Tucker was about to concede his friend's point when suddenly a sweet, feminine voice broke in, making all three teen turn in surprise.

"Excuse me. I'm sorry to interrupt, but do any of you guys know anything about computers?" Apparently, the woman they were discussing not moments before had approached them without any of the trio noticing, since she was now grinning sheepishly at them as she tucked a stray strand of wavy black hair behind her ear. "I need one before school starts, and when it comes to modern technology I'm pretty much hopeless with anything more complicated than a light switch."

Gaping in shock, Sam could only watch as Tucker's face light up like the Fourth of July. Wasting no time, the black teen grabbed the older girl by the wrist and dragged her back to the PC displays to begin toting the pros and cons of each model.

"Huh. First time for everything, I guess," the goth said dryly, turning to see what her companion thought of this recent turn of events to find Danny staring at the woman Tucker was with like he couldn't quite figure out what he was seeing.

"-And this one's got better graphics for games and stuff, but you need to watch out because the new OS is pretty buggy, but if you just-"

"Um, not that all of this isn't very interesting, but I was actually sorta just hoping you could recommend one that could handle the school year without blowing up in my face. I'm really not all that into games or anything. I mean, I'm sure they're very entertaining, but my family never had computers or anything in our home, so..." The girl looked a little embarrassed to admit this, which probably had something to do with the fact that Tucker was now giving her a look of abject horror.

"You don't play games?!" The boy repeated, making it sound as though the girl had just confessed to murder.

"Chill the melodramatics, Tuck," Sam scoffed before turning to address the increasingly uncomfortable girl. "If you want something simple for school, I'd recommend that Bell Desktop over there; the red one near the end. My grandma has one at home, and she uses it for almost everything.

"Thank you," the girl said, looking grateful. "I'll get that one, then. Good thing I spotted you guys, I was about to just play eeny meeny miny moe and just pick one randomly so I didn't spend the next five hours here looking like an idiot. I still have to shop for furniture and stuff too, after all."

"Did you just move to Amity Park?" Tucker asked curiously. The woman had an Asian accent, but spoke English well enough that it wasn't terribly noticeable, which suggested a foreign upbringing. But he couldn't imagine anyone from another country intentionally moving to Amity Park to attend college.

"About five minutes ago, actually," the woman laughed. "I came in last night around ten and crashed in a motel since my new apartment isn't furnished yet. I take it you guys have been here for a while?"

"Only our whole lives," Sam sighed, rolling her eyes.

"Do you three go to Casper High?"

"What? No! We just, um, look really young for our ages!" Tucker lied—badly. "I just so happen to be the CEO of a very successful company, and these two are my secretary and janitor!" Sam glared at Tucker for that, and Danny probably would've as well if he wasn't watching the woman they were speaking to like he was afraid she'd explode at any moment. Fighting back a laugh, the girl turned an inquiring look to Sam, who sighed through her nose before answering.

"Yeah, we're in the tenth grade. Why do you ask?"

"My Aunt Aoko is the principal over there. She calls every now and then to talk about the school and all that ghost stuff that happens around here," the woman explained. Sam, Tucker and even Danny reeled for a moment at this information.

"Wait... Principal Ishiyama is your Aunt?!" Danny said, trying and failing to find a resemblance between their stern principal and the young woman before them.

"That is what I just said," the girl replied, bemused. "Anyways, do you guys like it over there? It's gotta be pretty freaky to get attacked by ghosts pretty much every other day."

"Nah, you get used to it after a while," Tucker insisted, putting on the airs of being tough. "Ghosts know who not to mess with in this town, and none of them would dare lay a finger on Tucker Foley."

"I see," the girl laughed, shooting Sam a bemused look when the goth rolled her eyes.

"We don't have anything to worry about at Casper High as long as Danny Phantom is around," Sam stated firmly, making Danny grin in a rather goofy sort of way.

"Yes, I've heard a lot about the local ghost boy," the girl said. "He's very popular even all the way over in Tokyo. Some of the girls in my brother's high school carry around pictures of him in their wallets. It's supposed to protect you from evil spirits."

"Seriously?" Danny said, caught off guard at the woman's statement. It was a little strange, knowing that girls on the other side of the planet were using him as a ghost repellant.

"Yeah. Don't know how well that works though. If things are really that bad over here in Amity Park, I might have to give it a try myself to see if it helps." Danny blushed a bit at the thought of the older girl keeping his picture around all the time, which made Sam shoot him a flat look and Tucker sulk a bit.

"Or you can use my picture instead!" Tucker insisted stubbornly. "Like I said, none of the ghosts mess with me! It'll work loads better then Phantom's picture, promise!"

"I'll keep that in mind," The woman laughed. "Anyways, I'd better buy my computer and get out of here before the furniture store closes. Thanks again for your help, it was nice meeting you three."

"Same here..." Tucker sighed waving at the girl walked away to flag down a store employee. "Man, that chick is hot!"

"Give it a rest, Tucker. She's too old for you," Sam reminded her friend, as she dragged him off to the section of the store that had the supplies they needed.

"Oh come on, she's only about twenty or so, right? That makes it a five year age difference! Five years is nothing in this day and age!"

"Oh really, and how do you plan on getting her to notice you as more than just some geeky high school kid who takes video games way too seriously?" Sam questioned.

"Easy, I'll find out which college she goes to and arrange a few 'accidental' meetings. Chicks love that sorta stuff!" Sam frowned a bit at that comment; disapproval heavy on her face. Before she could voice it, though, Danny broke in with a comment of his own.

"It might be better to keep your distance, Tuck. There was something really weird about her," Both friends turned to give their half ghost companion their full attention.

"Weird?" Sam repeated, narrowing her eyes. "Like ghost weird?"

"No... well, maybe... I dunno," Danny frowned as Sam and Tucker exchanged confused glances.

"Which is it, man?" Tucker asked.

"It's hard to explain. The whole time she was around, I had this weird feeling. It wasn't my ghost sense, but it was kinda like... well, you know that feeling you get when your foot falls asleep, then it's all numb and tingly for a long time afterwards? It was kinda like that, only in my whole body. I dunno, maybe I should follow her for a bit, to make sure she's not dangerous or something."

"So she's potentially dangerous because she gave you whole body sleepy foot tingles?" Tucker was clearly not impressed with Danny's logic. "Dude, you're losing it." Danny scowled a bit at Tucker's comment, which earned him an elbow in the ribs from Sam.

"Look, I'm not saying that your weird feeling is something to ignore, Danny, but if you think that Tucker shouldn't be following her around then you probably shouldn't be either. No sense in looking for trouble if it has powers you don't know anything about. We'll let Tucker stalk her for a bit, that'll give us way to figure out what your tingles are all about without tipping her off."

"Romance!" Tucker corrected with a scowl. "I'm gonna romance her, not stalk!"

"In your world, Tucker, those are the same thing."

It took a moment for Sam's words to sink in, but once they did a scowl quickly worked its way across the tech geek's face.

"Hey!"

* * *

As a man who had been educating children for longer then he cared to remember, Obadiah Lancer had a lot of reservations about the changes that had been made recently to the Casper High curriculum. Specifically, he worried about the new so-called 'Supernatural Studies' class that was now being implemented. It wasn't that he didn't feel there was a need for the children to learn to protect themselves from the spirits that were constantly harassing their school. Actually he wouldn't mind a few lessons on how to keep ghosts at bay himself, to be honest. But the fact of the matter remained that he had very little faith in any humans knowing how to deal with the supernatural on any sort of level. And for good reason, with all the bumbling ghost hunters that were constantly tearing through Amity Park. The only one who seemed fairly competent was the mysterious red hunter, who was also just that; a mystery. He highly doubted that the young lady would reveal herself just to teach a high school class, and even less that she was qualified to teach at all.

To the reassurance of absolutely no one, Principal Ishiyama was unusually tight-lipped about why she thought the person she hired was fit for the admittedly odd job they would be required to do. She simply kept insisting that she had complete faith in the new teacher she hired, and that it would be virtually impossible to find someone more qualified to teach about the supernatural world.

Staring down at the five foot one twenty-four year old Asian woman in a white sleeveless turtleneck blouse over a pink skirt and brown boots, Lancer found himself seriously doubting the Principal's sanity.

"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Lancer," the girl said with a respectful bow that had her thick black hair slipping over her shoulders to curtain the sides of her face. "My Aunt Aoko has told me what a respected colleague you are here at Casper High. I look forward to working alongside you."

"Ah, yes... well... you too," Lancer managed despite his confusion. Aunt Aoko? This girl was Principal Ishiyama's niece? THAT was her idea of a qualified instructor?! "I have to admit though I wasn't expecting someone so... erm..." Oh, the adjectives that came to mind; small, cheerful, girlish, so vulnerable that he couldn't imagine her being able to protect herself from a ghost, much less show another person how to fend off spiritual attacks. "...Young. Have you had any experience teaching before?"

"I was a student teacher last year at Seiyo Academy, but this will be my first time having my own class," the girl confessed, looking a little nervous.

"And... you've had experience with the supernatural before?" Lancer asked doubtfully.

"More experience then I've had teaching, to tell you the truth."

_What?_

His confusion must have shown on his face, since the young lady hid a laugh behind her hand, blue eyes sparkling at the older instructor.

"I've had a very unusual life, Mr. Lancer," she explained. "It would take me a long time to explain it all to you, and you probably won't believe most of it, but let's just say that if there's one thing I can do and do well, it's keep supernatural beings in line. To be honest, it's the teenagers I'm more worried about then the ghosts."

"Smart woman," Lancer said dryly, earning a grin from the girl.

"Though I actually did meet a few of the kids that go here the other day when I was computer shopping. They seemed like good kids. A little unusual, but good."

"Yes, Casper High does have a few good kids mixed in with the disobedient, self absorbed youths that that seem to congregate in our halls," Lancer confessed, smiling wryly. "Unfortunately, you can't afford to be soft with any of them, especially the good ones. I find that they are general the ones most in need of a firm hand to keep them on task."

"I'll keep that in mind, sir," the girl said with a giggle, which made the older teacher smile.

Well, maybe it wouldn't be so bad to have a younger teacher around, after all.

"Well then, young lady, I suppose that it's time to begin your tour around the school," Lancer said cheerfully as he escorted the blue eyed woman to the door. "I'm sure your Aunt has already provided you with a map, but the other teachers and I have found several routes for quick, easy escapes in the case of a ghost attack. Since the priority in this school is to keep the students safe, it's best that you memorize them as well."

"Of course, Mr. Lancer. I'll do my best," the young lady said, smiling brightly at the vice principal.

Over the next twenty minutes he spent showing the new teacher around Casper High's meager faculties, Lancer quickly found himself being charmed by the young lady accompanying him, to the point where he quickly found himself disregarding her age and lack of experience as a setback. Aoko Ishiyama's niece was cheerful, outgoing, intelligent and had manners as pretty as her appearance. It was nice to be treated with respect for once, since it was something he rarely got from either his students or fellow staff members. She didn't even laugh or give him strange looks when he mentioned that he used to be a male cheerleader.

He learned quite a bit about the young lady herself as well. She liked animals, but had a paralyzing fear of insects, particularly centipedes and spiders. Her favorite subject in school was History, though she was skilled in English as well since her grandmother on her father's side was an American and her mother—Principal Ishiyama's older sister—had been born an American citizen as well, but the family moved back to Japan after the second world war to escape discrimination after the young lady's mother had her arm broken in a tussle she got into with some older boys. Principal Ishiyama moved back to America in her twenties with her husband when he got a well-paying job at Axion Labs, where the man still worked today.

The young teacher didn't like cars, and preferred to walk to and from school even though it was a twenty minute travel on foot, and despite being young, she didn't acquire her generation's taste for modern technology. Instead, the girl preferred reading as a past time, and favored quite a number of classic books that Lancer had in his personal library at home. She also greatly enjoyed the outdoors, and was already working to set up a small garden on the balcony of her new apartment. And even though she had graduated with a degree in education, the girl was interested and adept in medicine as well, though she lacked any formal training in the field.

The more he spoke to the girl, though, the more questions began to burn in the older teacher's mind until finally he found himself unable to contain his curiosity.

"I must admit, it doesn't make any sense to me," he said, earning a puzzled look from his companion. "You are a very charismatic and intelligent young woman. What on earth would possess you—If you'd pardon the bad pun—to come teach at the most haunted school in the most haunted city in America rather than finding a job in Japan where you could remain close to your family? Surely you must have had job offers over there."

"A few," the girl confessed. "But Casper High is the only one I could really consider, even if it meant moving away from home. Even if it's strange and dangerous, I feel like this is the place my experience is best suited for."

That answer, if anything, only served to make Lancer even more curious about the young lady.

Before he could persist further, though, an obnoxious wolf whistle sounded from across the hall, making both educators turn to find a group of students leering at the young female teacher.

"Some of the disobedient, self absorbed youths, I take it?" The girl sighed, looking a mildly aggravated at the ill-mannered teens.

"They may be among their numbers, yes," Lancer agreed flatly, glaring at the students. Raising his voice, the teacher boomed across the hall. "That's enough of that behavior! If you boys are going to act like a bunch of wild animals, then I'll be sure to lock you up like one. In detention!" The boys fled at Lancer's threat, laughing and shouting as they departed.

"Hey babe! Lose the old man and I'll show you a real good time!"

"Call me sometime, sexy!"

"Be seein' you in my dreams, beautiful!"

"Charming," The young woman scoffed, clearly not impressed with the teenage boys' and their audacity.

"Don't worry, Miss. I'll be sure to teach those little hoodlums a lesson about respect later," Mr. Lancer fumed, a little embarrassed that the newcomer had already seen some of the most blatantly disrespectful students the school had to offer.

"Actually, I'd like to handle it myself, if you don't mind," the younger teacher requested with a bright smile that made it rather difficult to say no to the pretty young woman.

"Well, I suppose..." Mr. Lancer said, faintly confused. "May I ask what you have in mind for their punishment?"

The young Asian woman's smile practically began to sparkle in response to Lancer's question. It was actually sort of terrifying now, to be honest.

"Oh don't worry. I'll just be asking them to help demonstrate some of the safety procedures I'll be teaching the class throughout the school year." Lancer blinked at that, more than a little thrown.

"And that's punishment how, exactly?" The vice principal wondered.

The girl merely smiled wider in reply.

* * *

"You're a horrible stalker, Tucker."

"Shut up."

"Seriously, man. A whole week and you still haven't been able to track down that computer chick?"

"Hey! I'm still working on it, okay?!" Shaking her head as her best friends argued, Sam couldn't help but grin to herself as she pulled an armload of books out of her locker.

_There's something kinda sick about the fact that these sort of conversations are normal around here_, the goth mused as she closed her locker and turned back to her friends.

"Don't be so hard on him, Danny. I mean, other than the creepy tingle you got when you met that girl, there hasn't been anything abnormal happening lately. Same ol' ghosts, same ol' fights, same ol' world domination schemes... Maybe that girl is just a normal college student who had too much static electricity around her that day or something."

Danny pulled a face at that, but he couldn't deny that Sam had a point. Despite his fears about a new power being at play in the city, there hadn't been anything especially weird going on since he bumped into the computer girl.

Well, weird by Amity Park's standards, anyways.

"I know, I know," the blue eyed teen groused. "I just... I have a bad feeling about it, okay? Something about that girl was super creepy."

"You're really starting to get paranoid if you look at a college chick as hot as that and think 'creepy,' man," Tucker stated flatly.

"You want me to stop being paranoid?" Danny shot back with a dirty look. "Find her and help me figure out why I wanted to run screaming the other way when I saw her."

"Like I said, man, I'm working on it, but there isn't much to go on. We didn't get her name, so all we really know is that she's a college girl here to start school and she just moved into a new apartment. Not exactly the best information to have when you're searching for someone, man."

"Come to think of it, isn't that a little strange?" Sam realized with a frown. "I mean, college terms don't start for another month. Why was she in such a hurry to get ready for school if she still has all that time?"

"Maybe she just wanted to acquaint herself with the city?" Tucker suggested. "I mean, she did move here all the way from Japan, after all."

"Okay, then why the motel and the apartment?" Sam asked. "She said Principal Ishiyama's her aunt, right? And they talk a lot despite the international charges, so they must be on good terms. Couldn't she live with her while she went to school? I mean, I've seen Principal Ishiyama's house, and she's got plenty of room for creepy, tingly college girls."

"Oh come on, there was nothing creepy about that girl!" Tucker groused, rolling his eyes.

"Yeah, that is pretty weird," Danny realized, frowning. "Hey, Tucker, did you look into Principal Ishiyama's family to see what you can find there?" Tucker froze at his friend's question, making both Danny and Sam stare at him incredulously.

"You didn't, did you?" Sam accused dryly, making the bespectacled boy blush.

"I forgot she said that the Principal was her aunt, okay?!" Tucker grumbled, looking thoroughly embarrassed at missing the most obvious lead to the mystery girl's identity. Pulling out his PDA, Tucker began to do a search as Danny and Sam exchanged looks over his head.

"Danny!" Jolting at the sound of his name, Danny turned to find his sister jogging towards him with an armful of books. "There you are! I've been looking everywhere for you!"

"You have?" Danny asked, puzzled. "Why? Is there a problem?"

"No, but I wanted to catch you before you went to first hour to tell you to take notes for me," Jazz demanded, handing her little brother a red notebook as he stared at her in confusion. Notes? Why would Jazz want him to take-

...Oh.

Oh, Crap.

"Supernatural Studies!" Danny groaned, smacking his forehead. "Man, I was so busy trying to find the creepy chick I completely forgot about that stupid class!"

"Creepy chick?" Jazz repeated, turning to Sam with a worried look. "Should I be concerned?"

"We aren't yet," Sam replied with a shrug. Taking that as a no, Jazz turned back to her brother to focus on the task at hand.

"Well anyways, I want to make sure I have someone taking notes for me in all the Supernatural Studies classes, in case the teacher covers anything or answers any questions in one class that she doesn't in mine. Make sure to write everything down, okay? I don't want to miss a single detail! Oh, and can you ask her some of these questions, too? And tell me if she has any books she recommends as soon as you leave class, that way I can start on them before I see her!"

"Isn't this a little excessive, Jazz?" Sam wondered. She was looking forward to Supernatural Studies herself, but the older redhead teen was kind of starting to scare her with her enthusiasm.

"Are you kidding? Principal Ishiyama says she personally called in a true expert in the supernatural to teach this class. Someone with intelligence and reason who has learned about the spiritual world on a deeper level than anyone else in the world, instead of just a nutjob in a hazmat suit waving around an ecto gun." Danny frowned a bit at the scorn in his sister's voice when she made a not-so-subtle reference to their enthusiastically trigger-happy parents, who were both still a little sullen that they weren't asked to teach this Supernatural Class instead of some outsider.

Truth be told, the relief Danny felt that his parents wouldn't be coming to school with him greatly outweighed any worries he had about the so-called supernatural expert they had brought in instead. A sentiment he knew his older sister shared.

"Anyways, promise me you'll take notes for me, okay? I don't want to miss anything, since this is my senior year and I won't be able to learn as much from the teacher before I go." Jazz seemed genuinely upset by this fact, which would have amused Danny if he hadn't been busy worrying about this new teacher again.

What exactly did their principal mean by a true expert, anyways?

"Honestly Jazz, I'm pretty sure you're getting your hopes up for nothing," Sam pointed out. "I mean, as far as 'learning about the spiritual world on a deeper level than anyone else in the world' I don't think there's anyone that tops Danny."

"Other than Vlad," Danny suggested, his tone a bit dark as he threw out the other half ghost's name. For a moment, Danny imagined Vlad in his school, teaching one of his classes before promptly throwing the thought far, far away.

Like he really needed any more nightmare material.

"Just take the stupid notes!" Jazz snapped, exasperated. "I gotta go now. English starts in two minutes. Good luck, Danny! You too Sam, Tucker!" And, before the trio could say anything in turn, the redhead plowed back through the crowd on her way to her class. Shaking her head, Sam turned to her friends with a weary sigh.

"Come on, we better get to class, too," the goth said as she grabbed Tucker and began hauling him down the hall, Danny following somewhat reluctantly.

He still had a bit of a bad feeling about this Supernatural Studies stuff, to be honest, and his sister's little speech out in the hall about how brilliant their teacher was supposed to be hadn't made him feel any better.

Entering the class, Danny suddenly felt much, much worse.

"Well well, if it isn't Fen-turd!" Dash Baxter, quarterback and bully extraordinaire sneered at the smaller, paler teen from across the room, leaning away from the pretty Hispanic girl he'd been flirting with to eye Danny evilly. "And here I thought you did us all a favor and died over the summer or something."

There was an irony somewhere in Dash's statement, but Danny was too busy smarting at the popular boy's comment to find it.

"Back off, Baxter," the pretty curly haired black girl in the front of the room snarled at Dash. "Unless you want the next new grave in Amity Park to be yours, anyways."

"Oooh, got girls fighting your battle for you now, Fenton?" Dash sneered. Wisely though, the boy didn't challenge the girl's threat any further. Valerie Gray was truly a force to be reckoned with when she found something was worth fighting for. Danny knew that painfully, painfully well.

Shooting Valerie a weak, but grateful grin, Danny followed his friends as Sam led them towards the back corner of the room, which was as far away from both Valerie and Paulina as she could get. Purely coincidental, of course.

"Hey, I think I got something!" Tucker exclaimed, grinning proudly at his PDA while it beeped and gave him the information he needed. "Hang on, just gotta put it through a translator so it's not in Japanese anymore..." Before Tucker could do this, Mr. Lancer entered the room, looking as stern and formidable as ever.

"Alright, class settle down. Mr. Foley, please put that away before I confiscate it again." Hastily, Tucker hid his PDA from sight. He knew better then to test Mr. Lancer's threat to take away his beloved electronics. "Now then, as I'm sure you all know, there's a new teacher here at Casper High, brought here specifically to teach you how to protect yourself from ghosts and various other supernatural beings. This is a very important thing to learn given the state of our town, so I don't want to hear anything about people acting up in this class. You are to treat her with the same respect that you show all other authority figures. If I find out about someone giving her a hard time, I will personally make sure that the culprit never sees the outside of the detention room for a long, long time, understand?"

Danny felt mildly offended at the fact that Lancer gave him a pointed look when he said that. It quickly vanished though, when a weird, numb tingly feeling began creeping its way into his consciousness just before a warm, feminine laugh sounded on the other side of the classroom door.

_Oh, no..._

"Come on, Mr. Lancer, there's no need to scare the kids," the young Asian woman said as she entered the room, oblivious to the curious looks she was getting from most of the class and the unfiltered alarm and shock on the faces of three teens in particular. "I'm sure they get the message by now, there's no reason to be so overprotective."

"Just making sure they understand," Mr. Lancer said with one last long, hard look around the room. "Feel free to tell me if anyone gives you any problems, young lady, my door is always open."

"Thank you, I'll keep that in mind," the woman said brightly as Mr. Lancer left. As soon as the door closed behind him, the woman grinned widely at the class. "Well then! On to business, I guess." Turning around, the woman began to write on the board, oblivious to the internal screaming of a certain half ghost as she did so.

_Oh, nononononooo..._

"There we go!" The woman half sang out when she finished printing her name and class information on the board in large letters. "So, as you can see, I'm Miss Kagome Higurashi, and I'll be your instructor in all things supernatural!"

As the rest of the class stared dumbly at the woman who barely looked any older than them, Danny buried his head into his arms, one woeful lament working its way through his mind as he realized that he was going to be seeing a lot more of the creepy computer chick then he originally thought.

_Why me?!_

* * *

**WoM- **_You have no idea how much I sulked over the fact that the submission style here on ffn basically ruined the surprise of who the teacher was gonna be. 'sighs dramatically' Well, whatever. I had fun writing this, either way. And there are many more fun things to come, trust me on that. Or don't. I like surprising people. Anywho, thoughts and feedback are grately appreciated! please try to keep some of it relevant to the story, though. Anyone who leaves a review that's _entirely_ about other fanfics of mine will be smacked with a rolled up newpaper. 'assumes batting position'_


	2. Class Act

******WoM- **_Sweet merciful mudballs! The response to this story was crazy! I honestly wasn't expecting much considering what a weird concept this is, so it was a big surprise to see this so well received. Clearly, I am not the only one who is amused at the thought of Danny suffering under Kagome Higurashi's eye. I want to thank all of the awesome people who left reviews for this story, as well as _**Obi-Quiet**_ for betaing this chapter. I'm still waiting on _**IronBloodAika**_ to get back to me with her take, so I'll probably replace this chapter when I get it back from her, but for now I feel pretty comfortable posting chapter 2 for your reading pleasure! Please enjoy!_

* * *

**Class Act**

_Education is not filling a pail but the lighting of a fire_. **~William Butler Yeats**

* * *

For a moment, no one responded to the strange, perky woman who was claiming to be their teacher. Sam and Tucker exchanged nervous glances before watching Danny carefully to see how he was handling the bizarre new twist of having the very woman he'd been hoping to investigate now teaching the class he had feared would expose him as a half ghost.

Tucker winced when Danny started to beat in head against his desk, muttering _"Stupid, stupid, stupid, STUPID!"_ over and over again under his breath.

"Well at least we don't have to waste any more time trying to track her down!" Tucker pointed out with forced cheer. Danny stopped beating his head in and shot Tucker an ugly look for that. "What? I'm just sayin'!"

"Um... Miss Higurashi?" Valerie said bravely from the front row. "Not to be rude or anything, but exactly how are you qualified to teach us about ghosts? I mean, have you ever even seen a ghost before?"

"What, you think Amity Park is the only place where strange things happen on a near daily basis?" Miss Higurashi asked with a laugh, apparently not offended by Valerie's clear doubt in her skills. "As a matter of fact, I have seen and fought ghosts and other kinds of spiritual beings before coming to this town. And demons. And the undead. And deities. Um, I kinda had an encounter with a dragon before, too."

"You... have?" Valerie obviously had a hard time seeing this, and she was far from alone. Other then Danny and his friends, everyone else was now starting at the woman like she was crazy. "Okay then. Mind telling us how you managed to fight off all those different… monsters?"

"All in good time," Miss Higurashi promised as she began walking up and down the rows with an armload of papers. "For now though, let's start off with the basics before we dredge up a bunch of old war stories." Danny only just stopped himself from recoiling when the woman set a packet in front if him. Curiosity outweighing his wariness, the ghost boy turned the packet over so it was front side up to see what it was that the strange young teacher had given him.

It didn't take him long to figure out that the packet was something that Miss Higurashi wrote up and Xeroxed for the class, since the same writing from the board now stared back at him from the paper as well. Scanning over the front page, Danny couldn't help but wince at each item that he read.

_Lessons Planned for the Year_

_1. How to Identify Supernatural Beings_

_2. How to Fight off Being Overshadowed or Possessed_

_3. Basic Protection Against Evil Spirits_

_4. Identifying and Exploiting Weaknesses_

_5. Treating Ecto-poisoning and Other Ghostly Ailments_

_6. Staying Armed and Fighting on the Fly_

_7. Spiritual Energy_

_8. Shields, Barriers, and Protective Charms_

_9. Fighting Back Against Spirits _

_10. Healing and Purification_

_Oh this is soooo not good._ Danny thought grimly, glancing away from the sheet to look at his friends to see what they thought of the list. Sam was still reading it over when he looked her way, and seemed pretty intrigued at what she saw, but Tucker appeared a little baffled, and was shooting Danny a questioning look as if to ask _'is this stuff for real?'_

That same bad feeling Danny had been nursing since he first laid eyes on Miss Higurashi was telling him that it probably was.

"Now then, I'm sure you guys have a lot of questions for me, and I'll try to answer them to the best of my ability in a minute, but first I want to explain some things to you," Miss Higurashi said as she finished passing out the papers and returned to the front board, erasing her name to make space. "We'll be studying some of the modern techniques that have been known to stop or neutralize dangerous spirits, but my main focus will be teaching you kids about the methods that have been around for centuries and still work to this very day.

"Technology's great for a lot of things, but I try not to rely on it too much against supernatural beings. There's too much of a chance of something going wrong, and mistakes with machines are usually a lot harder to fix on the spot then the little human error stuff. Besides, the more complex something is, the more ways it can backfire on you. Most supernatural threats have usually been around for a lot longer then you, and in my experience, almost all of them are a few centuries or so older. When you've been around that long, you learn a few tricks. It's not hard to mess up a machine if you want to. Or even when you don't want to. Trust me on that one..." Miss Higurashi's grimace at that suggested that she had a long, ugly history with technology, which made Sam snicker quietly next to Danny. "So yeah, anyways, machines are useful, but they're not game changers. You guys, on the other hand, can be. If you learn to be smart and think on your feet, anyways."

Most of the other students seemed surprised and a little puzzled after Miss Higurashi's speech. Valerie, who was listening with rapt attention throughout the whole thing, immediately threw her hand in the air when it seemed the young teacher was done, stretching it as high as she could go.

"Yes, Miss...?" Stuck by the fact that she had yet to learn any of their names, Miss Higurashi trailed off questioningly.

"Gray, Miss Higurashi. Valerie Gray," Valerie answered. "I was just wondering if you were implying that there's ways to fight ghosts without advanced weaponry. I mean, I've been paying pretty close attention to the ghosts hunters and stuff for a long time now, and I've never seen them try anything that didn't rely on modern technology when they were fighting or capturing a ghost. And to be honest, some of this stuff you're talking about here sounds more like magic or something," Valerie motioned to the packet Miss Higurashi handed to them when she said this. Apparently, the ghost hunter had already read through the whole thing while Danny was busy being miserable. That was definitely a bad sign of things to come.

"Magic?" Miss Higurashi repeated, sounding bemused. "Not exactly, Valerie. These techniques are more like... hmm, let's see..." trailing off thoughtfully, the woman considered her words for a moment before her face brightened with an idea. "Oh, I know! What's one thing you guys know about ghosts?" The class exchanged confused looks at the teacher's question.

"They're evil," Valerie answered without hesitation making Danny flinch. Miss Higurashi raised an eyebrow at the venom in the girl's response.

"Sorry, Valerie, but that's not the answer I'm looking for," she said, glancing around the room as a few more hands rose bravely into the air. "Okay, how about you by the window?"

"Paulina," the popular girl introduced herself, tossing her hair over her shoulder. "Like, they can fly and have powers and stuff?"

"A step in the right direction, but it's still not the fact I want," Miss Higurashi grinned apologetically at the pretty Latina before moving on through the crowd. "How abooout… you!"

"Dash Baxter," Dash said, somehow sounding like he was bragging even when he was doing nothing more than saying his name. "Aren't they all, like, super powerful and stuff?"

"Not necessarily, Dash." Miss Higurashi said, shaking her head to rebuke the jock's claim. "The power a ghost has can be very incredible, or it can be incredibly pathetic. It really depends on the ghost themselves. Okay, how about you in the back?" for a moment, the alarmed ghost boy thought that Miss Higurashi was talking to him, since her grayish-blue eyes settled on him for a moment before moving to his left. "Tucker Foley, right? We meet again."

"You remember me?" Tucker sounded insanely pleased by this fact, which made Danny roll his eyes in annoyance. "Anyways, ghosts are all originally from the Ghost Zone, and they have to come to the Mortal World through portals. And usually, they're looking to take over the world or something." Danny glared at Tucker for revealing such an important fact about the Ghost Zone to their strange teacher, no doubt in some sort of attempt to impress her. The Asian woman, however, didn't look at all surprised with what Tucker just told her.

"Again, that's not necessarily true." Miss Higurashi said, making Tucker's face fall. "The Spirit Realm—including the Ghost Zone you're familiar with—is a very mysterious place, but it's not where the ghosts are _from_. Rather, it's more appropriate to say that it's a world powerful ancient spirits like Pariah Dark created for themselves, since they didn't have a proper place in the traditional Spirit Realms and staying in the Mortal World too long weakens them unless they find a way to draw power from humans."

Danny, Sam and Tucker all went still at the woman's casual mention of the former Ghost King, as well as the fact that the teacher apparently knew things about the history of the Ghost Zone that they did not. Not noticing this, Miss Higurashi grinned to herself a bit before she continued with her rebuke.

"As for wanting to take over the world...well, some might, but I doubt it's the shared goal of every supernatural entity. Lots of them are just looking for attention, and there are more still who just want to have a peaceful afterlife." Clearly bummed that his answer wasn't the one that she was looking for, Tucker gave a depressed sigh as he put his head down on the desk. "Alright, how about you, then?"

"Sam Manson." Sam said briskly on Danny's right, impatient to get the introductions over with.

"Sam," Miss Higurashi repeated with a smile. "Thanks again for your help, by the way. So Sam, what can you tell us about ghosts?"

"They're dead," Sam answered bluntly, which made the rest of the class go still. Miss Higurashi grinned wider in response.

"Bingo! We have a winner!" the teacher sang. "The vast majority of ghosts are, in fact the souls of deceased mortals. People a lot like you kids, your families, your friends, people you've met in the grocery store... The only difference is that they've died and refused to move on to one of the proper Spirit Realms."

"What's your point?" Valerie demanded with a frown, feeling a little uncomfortable with this subject matter. She didn't have to look around to know that her classmates weren't any more at ease then she was.

The fact that dead people roamed their town was something no one in Amity Park really liked to talk about. Instead, they preferred to look at ghosts as a pest problem or a safety concern, rather then think about the fact that they were once as human as the people they haunted. It tended to make people feel uncomfortable about their own mortality, otherwise. After all, what if when they died, they became one of those terrible ghosts who were always threatening the town?

"My point," a bemused Miss Higurashi said, apparently not as afraid of death or it's consequences as her students, "is that none of the ghosts you've seen gained any sort of special power when they died. They just became aware of powers their souls have always possessed."

Now everyone was listening with rapt attention.

"Wait... you not suggesting that ordinary kids like us can have ghost powers, are you?!" Tucker questioned with wide eyes, doing his best not to look at his now deathly still best friend. "Because that sort of thing is totally ridiculous!"

"Well, maybe not those things necessarily, but humans have many amazing abilities that most of us never learn how to access. Things like intangibility and invisibility are side effects of not having a mortal body, which is probably _not_ something you guys want to lose any time soon, but there's plenty of other things you guys can learn. And there are ways to channel the hidden powers of a living soul to protect yourself from evil, weaken ghosts and even send bad spirits away into the proper afterlife," Miss Higurashi assured the tech geek. An excited murmur when up through the classroom at the teacher's promise, and Danny felt his stomach start to sink like a stone. Especially when he caught sight of Valerie's vicious grin.

"Isn't all that, like, dangerous?" Paulina worried, looking a little troubled.

"Not really. It's more dangerous to live in a town that's constantly being attacked by otherworldly beings and not know how to defend yourself against them," Miss Higurashi pointed out.

"But we got Danny Phantom protectin' us!" Dash protested, making Valerie scowl.

"The ghost boy of Amity Park can't be everywhere at once," Miss Higurashi said patiently. "It's not fair to him if you guys just put all the responsibility of your own protection on one person. Learning a little about how to look after yourself will be a big help to him too, I'm sure."

"Danny Phantom's been able to handle everything on his own pretty well so far." Sam and Tucker started a bit as Danny's sharp comment, the first time he spoke out loud since class started. "Why change things around if what we have is working?" Danny ignored the confused looks that he earned from his friends as he stared down the teacher, who gazed back calmly with those creepy, blue-gray eyes of hers, unfazed by the half ghost's outburst.

"It's definitely been working out for you guys pretty well so far, since no one's died yet, but the fact remains that Amity Park can still do better. If more people know how to protect themselves from spirits, then the city becomes that much safer. That way, maybe Mr. Phantom can concentrate on more than just protecting people." Danny didn't have a way to respond to that.

As much as he didn't want to admit it, Miss Higurashi was right; Danny did want the chance to do things other than fight ghosts. He wanted a normal life, where he wasn't constantly missing classes and at risk of flunking; where he and his friends weren't in danger all the time, and he didn't have to lie to the people he cared about. Sometimes, he just wanted someone to give him a break. But the fact that this weird woman seemed to know that about him only made the half ghost even more wary of her and her presence in his school.

After all, if she was able to figure out that much about him already, then what else could she find out with a little more time?

* * *

As he left Casper High's first ever Supernatural Studies class twenty minutes later, Danny Fenton was absolutely silent. And that was how he remained all morning long up until lunch. All his fellow Casper High students, however, were not.

"Man, all that stuff Miss Higurashi was talking about sounds kinda cool doesn't it?"

"Totally! Do you really think she'll teach us how to use some kinda special powers?"

"She's really young for a teacher, huh? Hot, too."

"I think she was checking me out. She smiled at me when I got up to leave, you know."

"Get real, man! A woman like that isn't gonna look twice at a dork like you. Not as long as I'm in the room, anyways."

"Where do ya think she learned all about ghosts, anyways? I mean, it sounds like she really knows what she's talking about, even though she can't be much older then us."

"What, you think I know any more then you do? There's probably a school for it somewhere or something."

"Danny?" Jumping at the sound of his name, Danny turned to see Tucker and Sam frowning at him in thinly veiled concern as they slid into their seats at the table he'd claimed in the most low-key corner of the cafeteria.

"You okay, man?" Tucker asked, noting Danny's paler then usual complexion and sudden case of jumpiness.

"Fine," Danny said briskly. "It's just that weird energy from that teacher. It gaves me the chills. Kinda made me feel like death's coming for me every time she walked by my desk."

"Don't worry, man, I've been pulling up information about Miss Higurashi all morning. We should be able to find out what it is about her that freaks you out so much."

"Other then the fact that she can be so cheerful when she's talking about the occult, anyways," Sam said with a dry snort. In the goth's opinion, the subject matter and the fact that the teacher didn't seem like a total idiot was pretty cool, but that Miss Higurashi was almost obnoxiously cheerful was kinda aggravating.

"That's great, Tucker," Danny said, relieved his friend came through for him. "What do you got?"

"So far? Her name's Kagome Higurashi. 25 years old, five foot one with long black hair and blue-gray eyes. She grew up in Tokyo, Japan, where her mom, little brother and grandpa still live. Her dad died in a car accident when she was a kid, so she and her family moved in with her grandpa at the family shrine. She seemed to have a pretty normal childhood, up until right after she started the ninth grade when she suddenly came down with a long line of freaky illnesses."

"Freaky illnesses?" Sam repeated curiously.

"Yep. Her family kept calling her in sick for stuff like sprained back, diabetes, leukemia, gout, rheumatism, beriberi, tuberculosis…" trailing off, Tucker grinned at the incredulous looks on Danny and Sam's faces. "Yeah, like I said; freaky. She's gotta laundry list of illnesses longer then Danny's dad is tall. Pretty sure she's had everything except the common cold." After scrolling down on his PDA's screen a few more times, Tucker paused for a moment. "Wait, no never mind. That's on here too."

"Do you have any information about her doctor, or which hospital she used?" Danny asked with a frown.

"No, that's the weird thing. All throughout the ninth grade, she was out of school sick more often then she was in class, but there's nothing about her getting checked out by a professional anywhere. Then when she went on to the tenth grade, suddenly she was all better again. She didn't miss anymore school, her grades improved and she joined a Gardening Club and the Archery Team. She must've been pretty good with a bow, since she got a ton of trophies and awards including something for some kinda horseback archery and two gold medals in the Asian Games. They tried to get her to represent Japan in the Olympics, but she turned it down to focus on school.

"She graduated high school in the top twenty of her grade. I guess she took a year off after high school or something, since it was a year later that she went on to study at Kyoto University. She was majoring in history at first, but then she switched over to education early last year. Did her student teacher work at some place called Seiyo Academy and as soon as she was good to teach on her own, she put in to come here to Amity Park and got hired to teach Supernatural Studies."

"That's all you could find?" Danny asked irritably. It sounded like a lot, but all they're really found out about Miss Higurashi that they didn't already know was that she got sick a lot when she was their age, practiced archery and hadn't originally planned to be a teacher.

"Hey man, that's all there is," Tucker said with a shrug.

"What can you find out about the shrine she lived at?" Sam inquired.

"I haven't looked into it yet," Tucker confessed with a curious look at the girl.

"Maybe there's something there? In _Rashomon_, there was this one scene where they called the ghost of a dead samurai back from the grave by using a shrine priestess as a medium."

"Or maybe it's just an old shrine where our new teacher grew up," Tucker shot back, rolling his eyes at Sam's logic. "You do know that those Akira Kurosawa films you like so much aren't based on facts, right?"

"Well, as long as there's a chance that her connection to the supernatural might come from there, we should probably check it out," Danny said, agreeing with the goth. It wasn't like they had anything else to go with, after all. "See what you can find for us, Tuck."

"Oh goodie," the tech geek groaned. "Surfing around Japanese sites and trying to translate them into English. My favorite thing to do."

"We need to find out how she knows about ghosts like Pariah Dark, too," Danny continued, ignoring his friend. "After school you two should head into the Ghost Zone and talk to some of the ghosts there to see what you can find. If she's been into the Ghost Zone before, then there's gotta be someone there who knows about her."

"Sure, we can do that," Sam agreed, looking a little curious. "Any reason you're not coming with us?"

"Yeah, because I'm gonna be going straight to the source of our problem," Danny confessed grimly, eyes narrowing on the young Asian teacher who had just entered the cafeteria with Mr. Lancer and Principal Ishiyama. Sam frowned in concern when she followed his eyes to see what he was glaring at.

"Be careful, Danny," she said quietly, drawing the half ghost's attention away from the woman to give the goth an inquiring look. "I know we need to figure out if she's up to something or whatever, but if she's really as dangerous as you seem to think she is then you should probably avoid drawing any attention to yourself. Either of you."

"Don't worry. I'm just gonna follow her home from school," Danny reassured her with a soft smile, a funny warmth blossoming in his chest when he realized how concerned the violet-eyed girl was for him. Sam colored a bit at the half ghost's expression.

"Yeah, well still. Be careful, okay?" Sam pressed, not willing to let the subject go until she got the promise she was looking for.

"I will," Danny agreed as his smile blossomed into a grin, which Sam readily returned.

"Ah-HEM!" Jumping a little at Tucker's pointed clearing of the throat, Danny and Sam suddenly realized they were acting strange and hastily put some distance between them. Faces burning, Danny and Sam avoided each other's eyes as Tucker gave the two of them a flat look.

"Anyways, um, I'll do that, then," Danny stammered out meekly.

"Yeah, me too," Sam said quickly. "Well not your that, but… you know, that."

"Yeah," Danny ran a hand through his hair, casting around for a way to dispel the sudden awkwardness between him and his best friend. "I'm gonna go find Jazz now. Give her those notes."

"Good," Sam nodded. "I'm gonna head to the library for the rest of lunch to see whatr I can pull up. Um… see you later, I guess."

"Yeah. Later," and with that, the two friends practically fled from one another, not even noticing the third friend who was left sitting there with an aggravated look on his face.

"Clueless," Tucker grumbled as he stood to follow the goth.

No one saw the blue eyed Asian woman who was watching them discreetly on the other side of the cafeteria, lips twitching with poorly concealed amusement.

* * *

Though school let out at three, it was nearly seven at night by the time Miss Higurashi left Casper High. Danny almost jumped out of his skin when the strange tingle that alerted him to the teacher's presence woke him up from the spot on the roof where he'd chosen to wait for the teacher four hours earlier.

Grinning to himself, Danny whistled a few notes of the Mission Impossible theme softly to himself before going invisible, flying high above the teacher's head as he trailed her process from the school. To Danny's surprise, Miss Higurashi didn't get into any of the five or six cars that were still left in Casper High's parking lot, instead heading straight for the exit on foot.

_She walked to school? _Danny realized, eyebrow kicking up. Combined with her strange aversion for technology and complete lack of interest in video games, this was starting to make the woman look more like she was from the Middle Ages or something. Sighing, Danny steeled himself for a long, slow night of tailing the strange new teacher to wherever it was she hung her hat.

Twenty minutes later, Danny was sure Miss Higurashi was messing with him.

"Come on, you can't seriously plan on making this trip every day!" the half ghost growled, glaring down at the small form on the sidewalk below him that had earned his ire. It was pretty safe for him to vent out loud, since he was way out of earshot of the woman "I mean, who walks to work in this day and age? They made cars for a reason, you know!"

To the young hero's undying relief, the woman finally turned into an apartment complex a few minutes later, smiling and greeting a few people she passed and getting enthusiastic responses, which made Danny frown a bit.

_She's not exactly making an effort to be discreet or anything. _The ghost observed silently. Curiosity winning out over caution, Danny floated closer to hear what people were saying to his teacher.

"-have to admit I had my doubts, but it really worked! Thank you again for giving it to me, Kagome!"

"It's no big deal," Miss Higurashi dismissed the other woman's gratitude with a laugh. "Just remember to drink some of the tea I gave you tonight, it should help with the headaches and counteract the insomnia."

"I will. Thank you again, Kagome. Don't be afraid to stop in if you need my help with anything!"

"I'll keep that in mind, Mrs. Crowley," the teacher promised with a cheerful grin as she parted ways with the older woman, who continued on her way with a spring in her step, turning to talk to her companion as she went.

"She's so young. I'm surprised that she knows so much about medicinal herbs. A bit of an odd hobby for a teacher, though. I thought she was a doctor or something at first, she sounds so professional when she's explaining things-!"

_Medicinal herbs?_ Danny thought, confused. Maybe that had something to do with all her illnesses when she was younger or something? That made some sense, but it didn't explain all of Miss Higurashi's weirdness.

Deciding that the only way to get answers was to keep tailing the woman in question, Danny floated silently after Miss Higurashi as she entered one of the complexes, heading up two flights of stairs before finally coming to a stop in front of a door labeled C-304. The half ghost grinned in triumph when the teacher slid a key into the door to unlock it, closing it behind her as soon as she was in the room. Pleased that answers were finally within his grasp, Danny went intangible and flew towards the door to see what the woman was hiding on the other side of it.

CRASH!

Stars twinkled in front of his vision for a moment as Danny collided painfully into the solid white door that barred the outside world from entrance. After peeling himself off of the seemingly normal door, Danny's hand immediately flew to his nose to check for bleeding as he kept a confused eye on the wooden barrier. There was nothing strange about the door, as far as he could tell, so why…?

All thought stuttered to a halt when the door he was glaring at suddenly opened and startled green eyes met with the knowing blue ones of Miss Higurashi, who was balancing precariously on one foot as she fought to remove a shoe, one hand against the door's frame in order to support her.

"You know, in Japan we usually knock before trying to enter someone else's house," the teacher said chidingly as she finally won her war with her footwear, straightening up to slide into a pair of green house slippers next to the door. "I'm sure that things can't be that different over here in America. Danny Phantom, I presume?" Danny flushed brilliantly at the pointed remark, even though the teacher didn't sound angry or upset when she said it. He'd gotten so used to just being able to walk in anywhere he wanted to go, that getting caught trying to break in to the woman's house was even more embarrassing then it would've been in normal circumstances.

In fact, Danny was so flustered that it took him a minute to realize he was still invisible.

"You can see me?" The half ghost blurted out in surprise, earning a cheeky grin from the teacher.

"My eyes aren't like most people, Mr. Ghost Boy. Seeing what other people can't is one of my many extraordinary talents. You can come in now, by the way." Danny hesitated momentarily before turning visible again and slowly stepping over the threshold into Miss Higurashi's apartment. When the teacher closed the door behind him, Danny gave a curious look back at the barrier, noticing the weird paper she'd stuck to it just below the peep hole which had some kind of Japanese writing on it. "I take it you didn't just come here to welcome me to the neighborhood, Mr. Phantom?"

"Not really, no," Danny confessed as he followed the woman further into the apartment, a little disappointed to see that the flat was surprisingly normal.

The room Miss Higurashi led him to seemed to be a combination living room/kitchen area, with a simple couch and coffee table off in one corner and a four person dinette set a few feet away from the stove, fridge and sink. There was no TV, but a small bookshelf wasn't far from the couch with a bow and quiver of arrows leaning against it. A little anxious, Danny casually positioned himself between the teacher and the weapon, as he tried to think of a good excuse for following the teacher into her home that didn't reveal his identity or make him look like some kind of pervert.

"I, um, was flying overhead when I saw you, and felt some kind of weird energy from you. I didn't recognize it and got curious, so I decided to follow you and see what you were." There! That was plausible, and it didn't make him look like a creeper. Just a concerned superhero.

"Liar," Miss Higurashi accused as she started digging around in her fridge, sounding bemused. "You're not the only one with supernatural senses, Danny. I felt you waiting for me outside of the school tonight before I left. For a good four hours, as a matter of fact."

…Well, shoot.

"Yeah, well I fly around Casper High sometimes. That's why I felt your energy, since I was there, and you were there and-" Great, now he was babbling. "Oh forget it. Look, are you going to tell me what you are or not?"

"You want a drink or something?" Miss Higurashi asked in lieu of answering Danny's question, holding up a can of soda for the half ghost to see. Well, apparently the teacher wasn't completely ready to join the Dark Ages, then. Though the lack of a TV was still pretty suspicious.

"Pass." Danny scowled, knowing better then to accept something from someone he didn't know. Especially someone with weird powers. Shrugging, The woman closed the fridge with her hip and cracked the can she was holding for herself.

"Believe it or not, Danny Phantom, I'm 100% certified human being," Miss Higurashi answered his question at last, settling herself down in one of the chairs in the dining room.

"Humans don't give ghosts tingly, creepy feelings when they walk by," Danny insisted stubbornly, glaring at the woman for daring to lie to him. Miss Higurashi arched an eyebrow in response.

"Oh? Are you sure about that? I mean, have you met every human in the world other than me?"

"Um… well, no but…"

"The world is a big place, Danny," Miss Higurashi reminded the half ghost patiently. "Ecto-energy isn't the only kind of power out there. It's not even the most dangerous, actually. People like me are out there to even the playing field a bit, give the human race a fighting chance against supernatural beings."

"Why is this the first I'm hearing about 'people like you,' then?" Danny asked suspiciously.

"Well, as creepy as my powers feel to you, this whole town gives me the heebie-jeebies," Miss Higurashi confessed, crinkling her nose a bit. "It's unnatural for a place where humans live to be so irreversibly connected to the supernatural realm. And frankly, it's dangerous for people like me, since our powers attract a lot of attention from creatures who would want to consume our souls, and our powers with it. I'm not surprised that you've never seen anyone like me before if you've lived in this town your whole life. Most people with any sort of sense of the supernatural would try and get as far away from this place as they can."

"So why are you here?" Danny asked briskly, curious and cautious at the same time.

"Let's just say I'm a risk taker and leave it at that, shall we?" Miss Higurashi said dismissively, making Danny scowl.

"You're hiding something," the half ghost accused darkly.

"Those in glass houses really shouldn't throw stones," Miss Higurashi said, her cheery attitude fading a bit as she frowned at Danny. "If I'm hiding anything, it's to protect myself and keep innocent people safe. I'm not here to pick fights or cause trouble, Danny."

"Yeah, well I don't believe you," Danny said bluntly. "You know too much about ghosts and stuff, and you still haven't told me anything about your weird powers." Miss Higurashi's frown deepened at Danny's observation. "Whatever you're hiding, I'm gonna find out what it is. And if you try to do anything evil or illegal, I'm gonna stop you, no matter what you can do with your powers!" Knowing that he wasn't going to get anything else out of the strange woman, Danny took to the air and flew towards the sliding glass door that led out to the veranda, where the woman had a number of potted plants.

BAM!

And promptly cursed himself a fool when he smashed into the glass. Right. Intangibility didn't work in here.

"You alright, Danny?" Miss Higurashi asked in concern, making the ghost's ears burn.

"I'm fine!" Danny said, avoiding the woman's eyes as he slid the door open and stepped out onto the veranda. Trying to regain as much dignity as he could, Danny took to the air again and flew off, doing his best not to look back at the teacher as he did so.

Shaking her head, Kagome pulled the glass door shut after Danny wasn't much more then a speck on the horizon, sighing quietly to herself as she did so.

_Enthusiastic kid. A bit clumsy, but his heart's in the right place. _Kagome thought to herself with a wry smile. Not all that unlike herself when she first stumbled down a well and into a world of jewels, demons and priestesses. He had some clear trust issues, but Kagome couldn't really blame him for that if half of what she suspected about him was true. Not that any of that should matter to her. She had her own reasons for coming to Amity Park, after all, and none of them had anything to do with the resident ghost boy.

_At least not until I realized he was more than just an odd ghost, anyways._ Kagome thought as she went back to her front door, strengthening the spell that kept her home safe from uninvited spirits. It was surprising, but it shouldn't make a difference in her plans. It wouldn't at all, really, if it wasn't for her curiosity and empathy.

After all, she had a feeling that not many people in this town had any idea that Danny Phantom was actually an odd blue eyed teen with a bad reputation as a slacker and a weirdo…

* * *

**WoM-** _Some~one's in trou~ble! 'giggles' Danny's a paranoid little ghostie in this one. All that purification energy, y'know? Oh, and to answer a question I got from a lot of you guys in the first chapter, Kagome is not the only Inuyasha character who will be making a big appearance in this story. And yes, Vlad will make an appearance. Eventually. A miko in the town that HE'S the mayor of? You don't really think our favorite fruitloop isn't gonna have something to say about that, do you? Once again, thank you very much for all the reviews! I tried to respond to all of them via PM, but I might've missed one or two. Sorry if I did, but I truly am grateful to everyone who took the time to respond to this story! THANK YEW! 'huggles'_

**Thanks To;**

Guest (Obi? Is that you?!), Kim, lilyofeval5, Suzume Batchii Taichi, XxXTwilight-SinXxX, Undeadhero143, kakashixangela, darkromdemon, Guest, Zarianwen, Varia no Shizue, great northern one, inuluvskags1, jeanette9a, Shebali, Invander Johnny, TartKiwiFruit, HalfBlackWolfDemon, katiesparks, FantomoDrako, Fluehatraya, YumeTakato, leslie2132, AnimeGrl2519, Chrizzie1, Black Cat Angel, Phantom, zoeshade, Catadmin, fofafie, I love snowy owls, Mistra Rose, Dark Inu Fan, Applejak XD, fallcon1loam, Tetsukon, Linariel, Bishonen'sFoxyMiko, Mischievious Kiss27


	3. Paranormal Paranoia

_**WoM****-** Just got this back from my beta earlier today! Had quite a bit of fun writing this chapter up, as you'll likely be able to tell. XD Anywho, hope you enjoy chapter three here, and don't forget to review!_

* * *

**Chapter 3- Paranormal Paranoia**

_A good teacher must know the rules; a good pupil, the exceptions. ~Martin H. Fischer_

* * *

_There's no glamour in the life of a sidekick._ Sam thought grimly as she wiped ecto-goo off her cheek, pointedly not looking at the black boy next to her as she sped towards the Fenton Portal. Tucker had the good grace to look sheepish at the goth's obvious anger.

"I said I was sorry," the bespectacled boy said meekly. Sam clenched her jaw, but said nothing. "Hey, in my defense, it seemed like a good idea at the time. And we didn't get eaten! That's a bonus, right?"

"We never speak of this incident again, Tucker Foley," Sam said tersely through gritted teeth.

"But-!"

"_NEVER."_

Wisely, Tucker shut up.

It was a relief to both of the teens when the Fenton Portal came in sight. After passing through the swirling green void, the duo found themselves back in the lab of their best friend's ghost hunting parents. Danny was already there waiting for them as they turned off the Specter Speeder, sitting in a corner and mulling over what little information Tucker had found on their new teacher. The teen half ghost glanced up from the papers when he heard the arrival of his friends, surprise quickly overtaking his features when he saw the state the duo was in.

"What happened to you guys?" Danny asked in concern, rising out of his seat to see the two better. Both Sam and Tucker were covered from head to toe in some kind of slime, and Sam's hair looked a little like a cartoon character's after they stuck their finger in an outlet. Little blue sparks danced around in the strands every now and then, shocking anything that dared to get close.

"Don't ask," Sam said, self-consciously reaching up to try and tame her locks only to wince as she got zapped for her attempt. Tucker blushed and refused to meet Danny's eye when the boy turned to him for an explanation.

"Alright then…" Danny said slowly when it became obvious that neither of his friends were going to divulge the reason behind their odd appearances. "So what'd you find out in the Ghost Zone?"

"Absolutely nothing," Tucker confessed, sighing when Danny looked at him in surprise. "We asked everyone, man. No one's heard of Miss Higurashi before, and no one recognized her in the picture we were showing around." Snagging said picture from the tech geek, Danny stared for a moment before raising an eyebrow at his friend.

"Where'd you get a picture of Miss Higurashi in a swimsuit?"

"I have my ways," Tucker replied, a little smugly.

"And as I'm sure you already know, there's not much more Tucker found in her records," Sam said grumpily, wincing a bit every time she passed a reflective surface. "She was reported missing once when she was fifteen, right before she started getting sick all the time, but she came back on her own. Her grandfather said she had hit her head on her way to school and got disoriented, which was why it took her so long to remember her way home. A policeman went out there to check and make sure she was okay, and according to his report she did seem to have hit her head, but didn't suffer any lasting damage. She had a few scrapes since she slept in a forest, and a bite mark on her hip, which she said came from a wild dog. A doctor examined her and said she was alright, so she went back home that same day."

"And the shrine?" Danny asked.

"No go, man." Tucker said with an apologetic shrug. "Their main attractions are a tree that's over a thousand years old and a dried up well that apparently eats skeletons."

"Eats… skeletons?!" Danny was clearly disturbed by that one.

"According to the myth we found, a nearby village used to dump the dead bodies of evil demons down the dried up well, and within a few days the remains would be gone." Tucker said.

"So they'd just vanish?" Danny said, his face brightening. "Then that must be it! That well must've been a natural portal into the Ghost Zone!"

"What, you don't think we thought about that possibility?" Sam scoffed. "Frostbite was the first ghost Tuck and I went to see, and he says the Infi-map doesn't show anything about a portal on a shrine in Tokyo. It's a dead end, just like everything else we found out about her past."

"What about trailing her? What did that turn up?" Tucker asked with a grin.

"You mean other then the fact that Miss Higurashi can sense ghosts, see them even when they're invisible and has ghost-proofed her house?" Danny clarified dryly, glaring sullenly at the picture Tucker had commandeered of the woman in question as his friends stared at him in alarm. "She says she's human, but I dunno how true that is. And I definitely know she's hiding something. She's more than just a weird teacher from Japan on her first job."

"Danny, are you sure you're not just being a little bit paranoid?" Sam asked with a concerned frown. "I mean, we know she's human. Tucker found her birth certificate and everything. We found her school records, her awards for archery… other than a little bit of weirdness here and there, there's nothing really freaky about her past that would suggest she's out to take over the world or try anything illegal. Heck from some of the comments Tucker found by her old classmates, you'd think this woman was Mother Teresa or something."

"Only, you know, waaay hotter." Tucker clarified with a grin, earning him an ugly look from Sam.

"I'm telling you there's something weird about Miss Higurashi!" Danny insisted hotly, glaring at his friends for their reluctance to believe him.

"Well, yeah," Sam agreed readily enough. "But weird isn't the same as evil, Danny. You should know that by now."

"But-!"

"Forget it, Danny. I'm gonna go home, take a long shower and change. Call me if you find a legitimate reason to keep invading our teacher's privacy," Sam huffed, her bad mood clearly affecting her temper. Danny didn't have enough time to work up a good protest before the goth stormed up the stairs and into the Fenton's house, leaving her male friends staring after her retreating form. After she was gone, Danny turned to his other, increasingly uncomfortable best friend.

"Um, as much as I'd hate to admit it, Danny… Sam's right. Miss Higurashi's strange, but nothing about her screams 'evil maniac bent on ruling the world' to me. I mean, she volunteered at a children's hospital when she was going to college in Japan, for crying out loud! And she donated most of the money she earned in archery tournaments to help fund housing efforts for the poor! Not exactly typical criminal mastermind behavior." Danny felt his own temper flare up when he realized that his friends didn't believe in him or his instincts enough to realize that the new teacher was a threat.

"Fine. You guys don't wanna help me? Then I'll just have to do it all myself," the half ghost snapped, turning away from his friend to gather the print outs Tucker had found on the woman. Agitated at the other boy's behavior, Tucker reached out to grab Danny's shoulder.

"Danny-" before Tucker could try and get through to his best friend though, Danny went intangible to shake off the other boy's hold, startling the tech geek a bit. Too stubborn to listen, Danny stormed up the stairs and off to his room before Tucker could recover.

Inside, he was steaming the whole way.

Why on earth couldn't Sam and Tucker trust his senses, which were all screaming at him that this woman was dangerous? He didn't care what all the papers and documents said, he knew there was something different- something _supernatural_ about Miss Higurashi. There had to be, otherwise she probably wouldn't effect him as bad as she did. And every ghostly instinct inside of him screamed that whatever that something was, he was meant to fear it.

_Now the question is, what is that something? _Danny thought grimly as he shut his bedroom door behind him. If there was a power out there that could instinctively scare a ghost that much, then it had to be seriously bad news. After all, what could possibly be all that dangerous to someone who was, technically, already dead?

Danny was dreading the possibility of finding the answer to that question the hard way.

* * *

"_Wait, he still goes to school? Seriously? You'd think that dying would be the best excuse_

_there is not to go to class anymore."_

"Yeah, well believe it or not, some of us_ like _to go to school, Souta," Kagome said dryly as she flipped through the dated newspaper.

"_You mean only weirdoes like you," _Souta teased back, getting an eye roll from his older sister.

Kagome didn't have the heart to tell her little brother that he was right. She'd been just as annoyed and frustrated with school as any normal kid, before falling down the well and into the past. But after that, it hadn't taken her long to appreciate the classroom that she so often had to leave behind. School was safe. Sure it had its problems, but none of them were trying to kill her. After dodging demons and greedy humans in the past, it was a relief to just sit and learn, even if she spent most of the time lost and scrambling to keep up.

Sometimes, for a minute or two, Kagome could even pretend she was a normal person.

Souta had never known how terrible things could get during the Jewel hunt though, and Kagome preferred to keep it that way. Normalcy was a blessing she had long since relinquished, but there was still hope for her brother to be someone who could live in the modern world without feeling like a penguin in the desert. She wanted that for him far more then she needed him to understand her own problems.

"_So are you gonna tell Aunt Aoko that one of the students is Danny Phantom?" _Souta asked curiously. It was a testament to how strange his life was already that he wasn't more confused at the thought of a human boy with ghost powers.

"No, I don't think so," Kagome sighed. "Aunt Aoko wouldn't understand."

"_Oh come on, she already knows _you're _not normal, and that doesn't seem to bug her all that much," _Souta pointed out.

"Yeah but we never told her about the well or the jewel," Kagome reminded him with a frown. "I'm pretty sure she just thinks I woke up one day and I could see ghosts and everything." Very few people asked many questions about the origins of her spiritual powers, even after they had learned that she was skilled at warding off evil or malicious attacks from supernatural entities.

"_Bummed you're not treated like some sort of living goddess here in the twenty-first century?" _Souta teased.

"Hardly," Kagome scoffed. "It just bugs me how people can ignore something that doesn't make sense to them. Supernatural beings have been in existence for thousands of years now, and yet the more humans learn, the more they deny the reality of that which they cannot explain. Pretending something isn't there doesn't make it go away. Even here in Amity Park! People here know there are ghosts around, and they know that they can hurt people, but they haven't taken any precautions against them, except to run screaming like a bunch of maniacs when they attack and then wait until Danny Phantom or a ghost hunter takes care of the problem. Then they have the nerve to bad-mouth the ghost hunting couple that protects them and call them freaks and weirdoes!"

"_Easy, sis," _Souta soothed, laughing a bit at Kagome's fiery tirade. _"So they don't know squat about ghosts. That's why you're over there, right? To teach them?"_

"Yeah…" Kagome said, shifting uncomfortably in her seat. "Right."

Kagome hadn't told anyone at home her real intentions for making the trip to Amity Park. That way, whether she failed or succeeded, her family wouldn't be drawn into her mess any longer. Kagome suspected that her mother knew. Perhaps not the details, but the Higurashi matriarch definitely had an idea of what her daughter was up to, and simply gave her silent support as always.

"_How's that going for you, anyways? I mean, other than the ghost kid, are there any students who seem like they'd be any good with the spiritual stuff?"_

"A few," Kagome admitted with a slight smile. "Amity Park is a hive of supernatural activity, so it makes sense that the residents here would have more developed sixth senses then you see in most other places. Danny's definitely the most in tune with his. Poor kid looked ready to jump out a window every time I walked past him. And there was one other student, Valerie Grey. She has a very strange pulse in her aura, and I think she got the sense that there was something different about me too. And Danny's got a pair of friends, Sam Manson and Tucker Foley. They're pretty in tune with the supernatural, and shouldn't be that hard to train up. Believe it or not, I even found someone with purification powers."

"_Seriously?" _Souta said, clearly surprised. _"But I thought you said that ghost guy killed off pretty much anyone who had that ability? Paralyses Dark or whatever?"_

"Pariah Dark," Kagome corrected absently, "the former ghost king. And yes, he ordered an assault on the earth three hundred years ago to kill all the humans with the ability to purify ghosts. He feared those powers more than anything else, after all. Still, I suppose some could have survived the purge and went on to have children with the power. Or maybe she's an old soul given another chance at life like me. Whichever it is, she must have said something when she was a kid."

"_What makes you say that?" _her brother wondered.

"There's a seal on her powers," the young teacher explained. "It's a very clumsy seal, probably done self-consciously when she was young. Most likely, she saw a lot of stuff other people couldn't and other kids started making fun of her for it, so she began trying to convince herself that it was all made up and cut herself off from her powers in an attempt to protect herself. You see that sort of stuff from time to time, even in the past. People don't like it when there's something that's keeping them from fitting in or making friends."

"_So what are you gonna do about it?" _Souta asked.

"There's nothing I can do." Kagome confessed with a sigh. "She doesn't want to believe she has powers. I can't make her see the truth about herself if she doesn't have the courage to accept that she's different."

"_That's lame," _Souta griped. _"I mean, who wouldn't want to believe they have special powers? I'd kill to do the stuff that you and Inu-no-nii-san can do!"_

"Lots of people don't see spiritual powers that way, Souta." Kagome explained somberly. "Sometimes being different is a very scary, lonely thing. Especially when you're little. Remember the way we used to get made fun of for our eyes?"

"_Yeah, well those kids were just a bunch of stupid jerks." _Souta grumbled, all too able to recall the bullies of their youth who taunted their mixed race heritage.

"Yeah well, 'stupid jerk' is a worldwide epidemic, I'm afraid." Kagome chuckled. "And not everyone has a big sister who will protect little scaredy-cat brats from the bullies."

"_Hey, that was one time!" _Souta protested. Kagome grinned in response. It was nice to know she could still embarrass her little brother even when there was an ocean between them. _"Anyways, there can't be that many people in Amity Park who find your kinda powers freaky if they got a ghost boy flying around protecting them from bad guys."_

"Just because someone relies on a power to protect them doesn't mean that they don't fear it, Souta." Kagome informed her brother. "Especially if it's something they don't understand, or can't control. I imagine that's one of the reasons why Danny is keeping his abilities a secret, even if it might be easier for him if other people knew."

"_It's that bad for him?" _Souta asked curiously.

"Almost all the other teachers started badmouthing him when I tried to bring his name up," Kagome said with a sympathetic twinge in her tone. "Nine out of ten of them see him as a lazy, eccentric trouble-maker who is always showing up to class late, forgetting to hand in his homework, leaving early without much of an explanation, falling asleep during lectures… He's been blamed for a lot of the destruction of school property, too." Some of them weren't quite as harsh. Mr. Lancer believed that Danny was a smart kid with a good heart, but he felt the teen wasn't applying himself nearly as much as he should be. The gym teacher Ms. Testlaff, on the other hand, insisted the boy was a weak, smart-mouthed slacker who needed to be whipped into shape, blaming his trouble-making on a bid for attention since he wasn't smart or popular like his sister.

"_Wow, and I thought school was rough for you..." _Souta observed. He knew how stressful saving the world had made pursuing an education for his older sister.

"Yeah. At least I could get away from demons at school." Kagome murmured in agreement. "This poor kid can't get a break. And I don't think his family knows, either."

"_Really?" _Souta seemed thrown by this fact. He couldn't imagine not noticing Kagome's comings and goings in the past without figuring out pretty fast that something was going on, even if he hadn't seen the centipede lady drag his sister through the time portal.

"His parents are two of the most renowned ghost hunters in Amity Park, and I've read a few articles about them trying to hunt Danny Phantom ever since he became public knowledge. Even saw a news report the other day when I was out shopping, and either the Fentons are world class actors or they honestly have no clue their son is Danny Phantom."

_"Yikes, hunted by his own parents? That IS rough..."_

"Mmm. He has to have some sort of support system going on, though. His friends, probably. That Tucker kid looked like he was going to have a heart attack when I started talking about people using their spiritual powers the same way a ghost does, and Sam was watching me pretty carefully during class. Maybe his sister too. She's a smart girl, and she seems like the type who doesn't like to be on the sidelines when something big is going down."

_"So she's almost as nosy as you, then?" _Souta joked.

"Haha. Brat," Kagome rolled her eyes at her brother's teasing.

_"Anyways, I'm a little surprised at how well things have been going for you so far. I mean, you've been there what, a week now? And you haven't been attacked by anything? That's gotta be some kind of record for you, right?"_

"Do you really want to see if sacred powers are possible through phones? Because I can make it happen." Kagome warned her brother grumpily. Was a little respect too much to ask for?

_"Just sayin', sis."_

Apparently it was.

"Wow Souta, that's so funny I forgot to laugh," Kagome said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "Anyways, most of the ghosts who sense my powers stay clear of me even if they don't know what I am. It's an instinct thing, recognizing that something's a threat to you, you know? Other then Danny, the only one that's been brave enough to confront me is a weird blue guy in overalls who was trying to hoard my moving boxes on my first day here. He was kinda funny, and he didn't seem like that much of a threat, so I just let him be."

_"So hypothetically, if someone was living with you, they probably wouldn't have to worry about ghosts either, right?" _Souta said hopefully.

"You're not moving over here, Souta." Kagome responded flatly, knowing full well what her brother was fishing for. "Mom said no, remember?"

_"Oh come on! How come you get to do all the cool stuff?"_

"Dunno. Take it up with whoever hands out destinies or whatever before you're born. And let them know I have a few choice words for them, too."

_"Please sis? I can help! You owe me for letting you practice what you'll be teaching your students on me, right?" _Kagome sighed, knowing that her little brother had her there.

"Okay, tell you what; if you do well in all your classes and there hasn't been any epic threat on my life here, then we'll talk to mom about letting you come to Amity Park for Golden Week. Deal?"

_"Deal!" _Souta agreed happily. _"I'll ask mom about it tonight at dinner! Thanks, Kagome, you're the best!"_

"Don't mention it, Souta." Kagome smiled, though a little wistfully. She knew how much her little brother admired her and her abilities after what she'd done in the past. It made lying about her true intentions for coming to Amity Park a little difficult, to be honest. But all the same, she stood by her decision. Souta would understand when he was older. Hopefully. "Now hurry up and finish your homework. And don't try and tell me it's done already, brat. Us teachers can sense those sort of lies from half a world away."

_"Alright, alright." _Souta laughed. _"Call again soon, sis, we miss you like crazy. And good luck with those American teenagers! Don't go sticking subjugation necklaces on any of 'em!"_

"I make no promises!" Kagome said loftily, earning another laugh from Souta which made her grin. "I'll talk to you again soon, Souta. Love you."

_"You too!" _A clicking sound signaled the end of her long distance call with her teenaged brother, followed by the dial tone to remind the priestess holding the phone that she should probably hang it back up. Kagome paid it no mind though, her somber but determined eyes glued to the article she had just uncovered in the year old newspaper in front of her.

_Local Ghost Hunters Build Portal into Ghost Zone_

* * *

Stumbling half asleep through the halls of Casper High, Danny wished for the millionth time that the ability to bounce back after a night without sleep was one of the powers he'd gained from walking into the Fenton Portal. Or at the very least they should've given him the ability to sleep with his eyes open. He wasn't looking forward into yet another detention for falling asleep in Lancer's class.

"Dude, you okay?" Tucker asked without preamble as he approached the sleepy half ghost, a cautious look on his face that told Danny the tech geek hadn't forgotten their last encounter. Danny made a mental note to apologize to his friend when he could keep his eyes open for more then two seconds. "You look like a zombie, man."

"He probably pulled an all-nighter looking for imaginary demons in Miss Higurashi's past." Sam theorized as she joined them, making Danny scowl a bit.

"I'm fine Tucker," Danny said, unable to keep the bitterness out of his voice.

"Couldn't find anything on the new teacher, huh?" Tucker said sympathetically, correctly reading the half ghost's tone to figure out that Sam had been right about their friend's activities. "We told you she doesn't have any red flags as far as evil supernatural encounters go."

"What supernatural encounters?" a new voice interjected before Danny could defend his suspicions yet again. Turning around, the sophomores found Jazz frowning at the three of them in concern. "Is there something else going on now you're not telling me about, Danny?"

"It's nothing Jazz," Sam said, rolling her eyes. "Danny just thinks the new teacher is evil."

"Miss Higurashi?" Jazz said, her eyebrows disappearing under her bangs before she turned to her brother with a worried look. "What makes you think that? Did she say something to you that sounded like a threat?"

"Well… no," Danny admitted, shifting uncomfortably as Sam and Tucker gave him pointed looks.

"Well did you see her doing something bad, then?"

"No." Danny shrank a bit as his friends' glares intensified.

"Is there any reason at all to think she's evil?" Jazz asked, sounding baffled.

"She creeps Danny out," Tucker explained in an I-told-you-so sort of tone.

"Given her subject matter compared to how she dresses and acts, I'm kinda getting a weird vibe from her too," Sam admitted, eyeing the teacher in question when she entered the hall. Sam was starting to see a pattern with the Asian woman's preferred dress, since Miss Higurashi was donned in a pastel green dress that had a white and buttercup yellow floral pattern with a satin emerald ribbon tied around her waist and a modest neckline that looked eerily similar to a modernized version of the sort of dresses her mother was constantly trying to force her into. "Not, you know, evil maniac or anything, but still kinda creepy for someone who is supposed to be teaching us about ghosts and monsters and stuff."

"Oh come on!" Tucker scoffed. "So she doesn't dress in black and act like she's allergic to the sun! That doesn't mean she's creepy!"

"Who's creepy?" Tucker yelped and jumped a foot in the air at the new interruption, spinning around with wide eyes to see the new teacher watching the group curiously.

"Miss Higurashi!" Sam squeaked out, looking over at Danny nervously. Out of all of them the half ghost looked most startled by the fact that the teacher had so easily snuck up on them.

_Either she's not giving off the creepy feeling anymore, or Danny's more tired than we_

_all thought, _Sam realized. Reading Danny's confused look, Sam quickly figured that the first explanation was the culprit and sighed in annoyance, a little irritated that Danny had them all chasing their tails over something that turned out to be an even bigger nothing than she'd first thought.

"Sam, right?" Miss Higurashi smiled at the violet eyed girl, apparently oblivious to the sudden discomfort her presence caused the teens. "I was really impressed with your intuitiveness yesterday in class." Sam flushed a bit, but looked pleased with the teacher's praise despite herself.

"It was nothing, Miss Higurashi," Sam insisted modestly. "I was just stating the obvious."

"For being so obvious it was a fact that none of the other students seemed to realize for themselves," Miss Higurashi confided to the goth, which seemed to please Sam even more.

"I would've gotten it eventually," Jazz mumbled under her breath. Apparently, the fact that she herself hadn't pointed out such an obvious fact was a bit of a sore spot for the senior.

"That aside, Miss Higurashi, I gotta admit that I wasn't really expecting you to be as knowledgeable about ghosts as you are," Sam said, realizing that Miss Higurashi had provided her with an opening to question the teacher about a comment that had bothered the goth greatly the day before. "I mean, all that stuff you said about the Ghost King… um, what was his name again…?"

"Pariah Dark." Miss Higurashi supplied readily. "I believe he's the ghost that attacked Amity Park last year in the fall, the one Danny Phantom stole the Fenton's special echo-suit in order to fight off?"

"Oh. Him." Sam felt a bit twitchy at the casual reference to Danny's counterpart. Jazz apparently felt so as well, since she broke in timidly.

"Um, do you really think that 'stole' is the right word? I mean, he did take it to defeat a super evil ghost, after all."

"Well, considering that he took it without permission from your parents and didn't return it when he was done, I really can't think of a better way to phrase that, Jasmine," Miss Higurashi pointed out patiently, making the teens flinch. They couldn't really fault the teacher's logic there, after all.

"Maybe he lost it?" Tucker suggested hopefully.

"Because a giant metal suit that amplifies the wearer's power is really that hard to misplace," Miss Higurashi joked with a grin. Danny blushed heavily at that as Tucker deflated a bit.

"It could happen!" Tucker defended meekly.

"Maybe," Miss Higurashi agreed with a chuckle. "I'm not here to accuse anyone of any wrongdoing, especially someone who's done as much good as Danny Phantom has. I know that sometimes doing the right thing involves some things that can look pretty bad when viewed from the outside. I've had to explain that to my aunt a couple of times to keep her from shielding the whole school from all ghosts entirely, since alienating good ghosts can cause just as much damage as leaving yourself open to evil ghosts."

"So, you don't think all ghosts are evil then?" Jazz asked hopefully, her face brightening considerably.

"Of course not!" Miss Higurashi laughed a little at the question. "There's no such thing as an entire race of beings that's completely good or evil, including ghosts. Actually, I happen to have a very good friend who's a ghost. That's how I learned so much about the Ghost Zone and Pariah Dark without ever setting foot into the Ghost Zone."

"Miss Higurashi? May I have a word before classes start?" Mr. Lancer called out to the younger teacher over the accumulating noise in the hall as more and more students filed into the school.

"Of course, Mr. Lancer," Miss Higurashi agreed, giving one last smile to the teens she was talking to. "I'll see you guys in class, then."

"See you, Miss Higurashi!" Tucker said cheerfully, waving at the young teacher was she made her way through the hall to the older instructor's side, a dopey grin on his face as he watched her go. Sam rolled her eyes at Tucker's actions, then turned to Danny to access the half ghost's reaction to the conversation that had just taken place.

"Still think she's the next maniacal genius, Danny?" Sam asked pointedly, feeling quite a bit better after having her questions answered by the teacher, as well as hearing Miss Higurashi openly admit to the fact that she didn't believe that ghosts- and specifically Danny Phantom- were necessarily evil.

"If she is, she's the best evil mastermind I've ever met" Jazz observed dryly. "Vlad probably would've won over you, mom _and _me in a heartbeat if he was half that good at faking being a nice person."

"Me too!" Tucker confessed cheerfully, to the surprise of no one.

"Look, I know you guys don't believe me, but I'm telling you Miss Higurashi's up to something!" Danny groused, glaring at the three unconvinced faces surrounding him. "And I'm gonna prove it to you!" Sam's heart sank at the half ghost's tone at that declaration. It was one she recognized all too well, since she had heard it a number of times before. Usually, right before Danny abused his powers in some form in order to get revenge on Dash.

"Danny-!" the goth started, hoping to stop her friend before he did something stupid.

"You guys go on ahead to class. I'll catch up later," Danny cut her off, darting away before Sam- or anyone else, for that matter- could stop him. Jazz, Tucker and Sam exchanged anxious looks in the wake of the half ghost's departure.

"So, anyone wanna take bets on how badly this is gonna end?" Tucker asked jokingly in hopes of breaking the tension.

"You guys are gonna stop him if he tries something stupid, right?" Jazz asked worriedly.

"Since when has anyone been able to stop Danny from doing stupid things with his powers?" Sam shot back dryly before sighing. "Don't worry. Tucker and I have gotten pretty used to damage control at this point. If things go bad, we'll just fall back on the Divert-and-Grab technique to get Danny out of harm's way."

"You wanna be the diverter or the grabber?" Tucker asked the goth cheerfully, grinning in a knowing sort of way.

"Grabber. It'll give me the chance to hit him for being an idiot," Sam answered darkly as she walked off towards their classroom as the warning bell sounded to tell students that they only had five more minutes to get to class, Tucker at her side. Shaking her head, Jazz departed for her own class, silently hoping that her little brother didn't try anything too reckless with their new teacher.

* * *

When the tardy bell rang and Danny was still nowhere in sight, Sam and Tucker flashed each other anxious looks, which did not go unnoticed by Kagome when she got up to close the door.

_Uh-oh, that can't be good. _The woman thought with a slight frown as she sensed Danny's supernatural presence suddenly spike, meaning he'd probably just transformed into his ghostly persona. With any luck, he was just going to go off and deal with a rogue spirit or something, but Kagome sort of doubted that. Sighing quietly, the young teacher decided to skip calling attendance this morning, since it just put poor Sam and Tucker on the spot to lie for their friend. She was fairly good at putting names to faces, anyways, and if she forgot someone she could always just ask.

"Alright class, time to get started!" the blue eyed Asian said cheerfully as she turned to her students. Despite being the first class of the morning, all of the students were wide awake and completely focused on their instructor, which kind of amused the former time traveler. Clearly the students were curious as to how these classes were going to go. Walking back to her desk, Kagome pulled a battered old doll from her bag, grinning when she turned to show it to the class and earned an array of confused looks in return. "Now then, can anyone here tell me what this is?"

"Um, Miss Higurashi? That's just some dumb old doll," the blonde boy near the front (Dash Baxter, if she remembered right) answered without raising his hand, giving the teacher a weird look. Before Kagome could reply to the jock's claim, the florescent light above the blonde's head suddenly exploded, making the boy scream in fright. Dash was unharmed, since the light's cover protected him from the shattered glass, but that didn't stop him and several students nearby from diving for cover.

_These kids have some pretty impressive reflexes._ Kagome noticed as she sent out a wave of purification energy to dispel the spirit's fury at the teen's thoughtless comment.

"It's alright, everyone. Back to your seats, there's no danger here anymore," the teacher reassured everyone. There was a moment's hesitation from the teens despite her words, but after several seconds passed with no follow up attack, the students hesitantly slid back into their seats. Smiling slightly, Kagome raised an eyebrow at Dash. "Not that I don't appreciate your input, Dash, but you might want to watch who and what you insult in the future. It can lead to some nasty results sometimes if you're not careful."

The jock went scarlet at the pretty teacher's advice, but said nothing in response.

"However, Dash's little slip of tongue has led us to the first and most important rule to remember when you're dealing with the supernatural," Kagome told the class, setting the doll down on her desk to pick up a piece of chalk and write out a single sentence at the top of her chalkboard.

_Looks can be deceiving._

"We talked yesterday about the fact that ghosts are formed from the souls of the deceased, but you guys have to understand that souls can take many different forms after death, and not all of them make sense to anyone other than the person who died," Kagome explained, setting the chalk down and turning back to face the class, who were watching her with rapt attention.

"You mean... that doll's a ghost?!" Dash squeaked, giving the battered toy a terrified look.

"Not yet," Kagome assured the jock, getting confused looks from most of the class.

"What do you mean 'not yet'?" Valerie asked curiously, appraising the doll with steady green eyes.

"About eighty or so years ago, this doll was brand new, and it belonged to a little girl with Leukemia. When that little girl was alive, she poured her heart and soul out to this doll, and loved it so dearly that her soul became attached to it even after her death," Kagome explained confidently, fishing a pair of glasses out of her bag and handing them to the black girl, who took them with a confused look at the teacher. "Put those on. They'll make the ectoplasmic residue the doll gives off visible to the human eye." Obeying the teacher, Valerie slipped the glasses into place, her eyes immediately widening at the sight of the cloudy green mist that clung to the air around the doll.

"Oh, cool!" Valerie breathed, watching in fascination as the mist seemed to respond to her attention, shrinking away almost shyly under the ghost hunter's curious eye.

"What you're seeing right now is ectoplasm without a conscious form," Kagome told Valerie, a little amused with how impressed her student was with the glasses. "If left unchecked, this doll will serve as a catalyst to create a full-formed ghost in about a decade or so, give or take. Most likely, the ghost will have little or no memories of her life as a human, and will simply be a posthumous representation of the thoughts and feelings that the little girl expressed to her toy in life. Could you please pass them around so the rest of your classmates can see them as well?"

"Wait, so what does all that junk mean?" Dash asked in confusion as Valerie handed the glasses off to the boy on her right. "I mean, you said yesterday that ghosts were dead people, right? Now you're saying that they just represent dead people?"

"Well it's actually rather complicated, but technically both can be true. It really depends on the ghost themselves, to be honest," Kagome informed her students, walking back to the board and picking up the chalk yet again to draw out various forms. "You see, there are five different ways a ghost will commonly be formed. One way is through powerful emotions during death that might cause a soul to reject the proper spirit world in favor of lingering in the mortal realm. If someone dies with intense feelings of anger, fear or resentment, for example, it's likely they'll return as a ghost. This tends to be one of the more common ways a ghost can be formed, and if probably the way that most of the ghosts that attack Amity Park came to be.

"Then there are the ghosts who should have entered the proper spirit realm, but didn't for some reason or another. The reasons tend to vary from ghost to ghost—it could've been a curse which was placed on them in life, which prevents them from finding proper rest, or maybe there was some task in life which they wished so strongly to continue to perform that even death could not stop them, such as raising a child or protecting someone or something else that was important to them. Generally, these ghosts keep to themselves, although there are a few that have been known to threaten the living, usually if a human threatens or trespasses upon whatever it is that they chose to linger for.

"And then we have the spirits formed from those with dreams of grandiose. These are usually born from people who were so unhappy with their lot in life that they've willingly forgone the true spirit realms in hopes of obtaining their wants or desires after death. These ghosts can be violent, but mostly they're just crazy and obsessed.

"Next we have the spirits who have been banned from finding peace in the spirit world due to misdeeds they've performed in life. Usually, the crimes have to be pretty heavy if they don't even bother to judge the soul after their deaths, so ghosts formed from these guys tend to be pretty vicious. Thankfully, they're also pretty rare, and usually suffer some sort of limitation on their powers due to their crimes.

"And finally, we have the ghosts that are formed from the thoughts, fears or beliefs of a large mass of people. These tend to be powerful ghosts who don't look as human as the others do. They can be representations of nature or intangible forces that man cannot control, and aren't actually born from a single person but rather little bits and pieces of many, many people over a long period of time. These ghosts tend to be all over the place as far as their alignment to good or evil goes, but one thing that's true is that they're usually very strong, and that they generally have less of a grasp on humanity then ghosts that were formed from a single person do."

"What about ghosts who are born as ghosts?" Tucker asked, thinking of the future daughter of the Lunch Lady and the Box Ghost (though not without a slight grimace). "I mean, they don't come from dead people, right?" This question earned Tucker several confused looks that clearly said his classmates were now questioning his sanity, but before any of them could jump on him for it, Kagome spoke up.

"Actually, souls who are 'born' ghosts, as you put it, are generally formed from infants who die during or shortly after pregnancy or childbirth(comma)" Kagome explained, frowning a little. "Sometimes these souls get confused when they die so quickly after being born, and this can prevent them from entering the proper spirit world. But since they're spirits aren't as solidly formed as a ghost who has been around for a while, they kind of latch onto formed ghosts for support until they're capable of maintaining a form on their own. Because of that, the energies of the ghosts tend to leave a powerful imprint on the infant's soul, which in turn 'makes' them into the ghosts' baby. They generally don't understand the concept of life and death very well either, since they've been undead for as long as they can remember.

"The thing you have to realize when dealing with ghosts is that sometimes certain memories or feeling can affect a soul so strongly that it carries over after death, and becomes their reason for existing. For those of you who have studied psychology, think of the more violent ghosts as what people would be like if they didn't have the superego to control the id and ego. Depending on how they died and how strongly in tune they are with their former humanity, ghosts can be seen as either a person just like you and me- only, you know, dead—or the wants and needs of the deceased person, without morals to guide them." This thought had a lot of her students exchanging uneasy looks with one another, clearly uncomfortable with the teacher's words.

"What about half ghosts?"

Tucker fumbled and dropped the glasses that Mikey was handing to him when Valerie voiced that question, and Sam went deathly still beside him. Kagome, on the other hand, merely regarded the pretty curly haired girl with a curious look.

"I'm sorry, half ghosts?" she repeated, raising an eyebrow at the strange term.

"Yeah. You know, people who are human and ghosts at the same time," Valerie insisted, pursing her lips at the thought of the billionaire who had deceived her into doing his dirty work for so long. Before Kagome could answer, Dash, Paulina and Kwan all burst into loud, obnoxious laugher at the girl's question.

"Are you seriously suggesting that there's someone out there who can be a human _and_ a ghost?" Paulina asked between her giggles, looking at Valerie incredulously. "I knew you lost you mind when we stopped hanging out, Valerie, but this is too much!"

"Yeah! You can't be, like, dead_ and _alive, you know!" Dash said with a confident sneer. "Isn't that right, Miss Higurashi?"

_Oh, you'd be surprised... _Kagome thought flatly, recalling her former incarnation and the Band of Seven, and various other living dead she'd come across while looking for the jewel. Before she could say anything though, the tell-tale energy of a very strange ghost made its presence known to Kagome's senses. Realizing that Danny had returned to the school, Kagome relaxed minutely as she tried to figure out the best way to answer this new line of question.

"Actually, I know of several ways the dead have been reanimated before," Kagome told Dash.

"Wait, you mean zombies?!" Tucker exclaimed. "There was a zombie apocalypse in Japan and I MISSED it?!" Sam scowled at her friend as Kagome's glasses slipped through his fingers and to the floor yet again, then narrowly missed getting stepped on by his boots.

"Will you give me those before you break them?!" Sam snapped, snatching the glasses off of the floor and giving her friend a dirty look.

"Not zombies exactly, but souls reanimated into false bodies," Kagome assured Tucker.

"So, basically a ghost wearing a people-suit instead of just possessing someone?" Sam suggested as she slipped the glasses up the bridge of her nose. Kagome grinned a bit at the visual the goth gave her.

"Exactly!" the miko said cheerfully, though she was a little distracted by the fact that Danny's energy was getting much closer. He didn't plan on changing back into his human form in the classroom did he?

Before Kagome could wonder about this much longer, Danny entered the room through the wall behind her and, seconds later, there were a pair of gloved hands on either sides of her waist, lifting the startled teacher into the air as a loud, exaggerated moaning sound echoed from directly behind her.

"GHOST!" Dash shrieked, jumping out of his seat and backpedaling away from the floating teacher. Many of the other students followed suit, save for a very confused looking Tucker, Valerie, who almost immediately tensed for attack and Sam, who was staring slack-jawed with horrified embarrassment at something over Kagome's shoulder.

_What on earth is this kid DOING?! _Kagome thought irritably, craning around to look over her shoulder at the ghost that was carrying her. Kagome's annoyance was replaced with shock and disbelief at the sight that greeted her. _Oh you have _**got**_to be kidding me._

Danny, it seemed, had left school not to fight a ghost as Kagome had first assumed, but to drape a bed sheet with eyeholes over himself. Kagome probably would have laughed herself into a coma at the sight of a real ghost using such a cheesy and unoriginal disguise if she wasn't so busy suffering from second-hand humiliation at the knowledge that, yes, this _was_ the guy who was supposed to be protecting Amity Park from the forces of evil.

God she hoped she had never done anything this stupid or embarrassing when she was trying to save the world...

Sighing through her nose, Kagome glanced dryly around her classroom at the panicking students below her. Apparently, Phantom was still invisible so all they could see was their new teacher floating in midair. Well, except for Sam, who still had the special energy seeing glasses on. Clearly, the goth was just as impressed with Danny's disguise as Kagome herself.

"Settle down, class. No need for alarm," Kagome said flatly as she dug her elbow into Danny's side. Yelping, the boy dropped her, leaving Kagome to fall to the floor. Years of experience at getting tossed around like a rag doll by demons kicked in, allowing Kagome to catch herself before she got hurt and land in a crouched position. Straightening up, a very cranky Kagome turned to face the ghost that had grabbed her, pulling her house keys out of the pocket of her dress and detaching the small, silk bag tied to the keychain and sprinkling a little bit of the contents into her hand.

Before Danny could recover from her 'attack,' Kagome blew the powder from her hand onto the ghost boy. The instant it made contact, Danny immediately became visible for all to see.

Not to mention susceptible to the laws of gravity.

"OOF!" The hero grunted in pain as he landed ungracefully on his backside, alarmed and confused as to why he was in his ghost form, yet his powers weren't working. Then, a certain, angry blue-eyed teacher suddenly loomed over him and Danny realized that he had bigger problems to deal with at the moment.

"What did you do?!" Valerie asked, clearly intrigued by how effortlessly the teacher had dealt with the threat.

"It's just a simple mixture of herbs and minerals that can temporarily short out a ghost's powers." Kagome replied airily, tossing the silk bag of said mixture put and down with her free hand as she stood before the disguised ghost in the floor, a hand at her hip and glare on her face. Powerless, Danny shrank back meekly at the fire in the teacher's eyes. "Now then, since I'm _**sure**_ this was just a silly, stupid prank by a bored ghost with too much time on his hands that Danny Phantom couldn't be bothered to deal with, I'm going to let to leave without any further punishment. But if you ever try to pull something in my class again, especially when there are _**students**_ present, your powers are going to be the least of your worries._ Do we have an understanding_, Spooky?"

Eyes wide as dinner plates, Danny nodded, the bed sheet jerking up and down with the movement of his head. Relaxing slightly, Kagome stepped past the ghost, not missing the way that he flinched at bit as she drew closer, then relaxed when she continued to the door without so much as another glare in his direction. Opening the door, Kagome set a hand on her hip again and speared Danny with a flat look.

"Good. Now then, I'm willing to bet that you have somewhere else to be, young man. I suggest not wasting any more time getting there." Needing no more nudging, Danny promptly shot out the door like a bullet. Sighing quietly to herself, Kagome shut the door behind him and turned back to face the class again.

And then faltered a bit at the sight of thirty plus faces staring at her in awe and respect.

_Well, that certainly upped my credibility a bit..._ Kagome thought in bemusement.

"Alright then, everyone return to your seats," Kagome called out. The kids needed no further prompting from the teacher, practically diving back into their desks in order to get on with the lessons, questions falling from their lips in rapid succession.

"How did you do that?!" Dash asked eagerly.

"Can we seriously learn to do stuff like that, too?" Kwan wondered with wide eyes.

"Are there other ways to incapacitate a ghost?" Valerie questioned, a rather frightening grin on her face that reminded Kagome a bit of when Shippo was planning an especially nasty prank.

"That ghost you just met is gonna be okay, right?" Sam said, failing to mask her concern for her friend.

Before Kagome could respond to any of the questions being fired at her, the classroom door creaked open again and a surprisingly nervous looking Danny Fenton peeked his head in.

"I'm, um, sorry I'm late, ma'am," the blue eyed boy said meekly. "I was having some... uh... stomach issues." Kagome watched in amusement as Danny rubbed his side where she'd elbowed him as he said that.

"That's alright Danny," Kagome said sweetly. "I'm glad you're feeling better now. Please take your seat so we can continue class." Danny didn't need to be told twice, practically teleporting to his seat between Sam and Tucker, who both shot him concerned looks as he sat down and tried to make himself as small as humanly possible. Deciding to cut the boy a break despite his supremely stupid move earlier, Kagome turned her attention back to the rest of the class, returning to the front of the board.

"Settle down, everyone. I promise you, we'll learn the various ways you can stop a ghost later on in the year. For now, though, we need to focus on making sure we know what ghosts are, and why they act the way they do. A little_ understanding _can go a long way, and sometimes if just know how to _talk_ to someone, there won't be any need for violence at all. Wouldn't you agree, Danny?" Kagome grinned a bit as the teen in question paled for a moment at her inquiry. Okay, so she wasn't completely over his boneheaded move earlier, so sue her. Clearly, she wasn't the only one who was pleased to see the boy squirming at being put on the spot. Sam was hiding a smirk behind a pale hand, and Tucker snickered quietly at his friend's side.

"Y-yes, ma'am," Danny mumbled, shrinking a little further into his seat to avoid being called on again, so that only the top of his head was visible. Figuring that the teen had learned his lesson, Kagome turned back to her teachings and left Danny alone for the rest of the class period. Inwardly, though, the former priestess preened.

Ghost powers of not, Danny Phantom was about ten years too early to try and get the drop on her.

* * *

WoM- Danny is a dolt. That's okay though, because I love him that way. XD Kagome's enjoying this more then she wants to admit, anyways. One would almost think she enjoyed abusing her seat of power, but I'm sure that's ridiculous. 'eyes prayer bead necklace nervously.' Anyways, don't forget to review on your way out! It's what feeds my muses, you know! Don't want them starving to death over here!

**Thank To;**

jeanette9a, Dark Inu Fan, LeadStrategist, Bunny.W.K, falcon1loam, Guest, o0Inochi0o, Phantom, Invader Johnny, Linariel, Suzume Batchii Taichi, Varia no Shizue, fofafie, Bishonen'sFoxyMiko, That-One-Dudet, zoeshade, Fluehatraya, princessbinas, Mischievious Kiss27, CSIalchemist, Dragoneisha, leslie2132, darkromdemon, YumeTakato, shugokage, TartKiwiFruit, Applejax XD, AnimeGrl2519, Chrizzie1, Iriss-sama, rankagi, FantomoDrako, nycorrall, 1000Nachts, Yoruko Rhapsodos, Spastic Freak


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